Seychelles confirmed for internet gambling

The ILBS.com legal information website confirmed this week that the Seychelles is a licensing jurisdiction for online gambling operators in terms of its Interactive Gambling Act.
The Seychelles is an idyllic tropical archipelago of 115 islands positioned about a thousand kilometres off the Kenyan coast in the Indian Ocean.
IBLS advises that the Interactive Gambling Act provides for the licensing and regulation of any Internet gambling business conducted in or from the Seychelles. It conforms to strict international regulatory norms and draws heavily from the relevant Australian legislation.
Under the Act, the regulatory authority will only grant licenses to conduct interactive games to fit and proper persons, and retains the right of approval of the gaming software and control system. In deciding to grant or refuse to grant an application for a license, the authority may consider various factors including the applicant’s character or business reputation; the applicant’s current financial position and financial background; the ownership or corporate structure of the applicant where the applicant is not an individual; the character or business reputation and the current financial position and financial background of any body incorporated or not with which the applicant has a business association.
In terms of regulation and enforcement measures, the Act requires the annual auditing of an operator’s accounts and financial statements, and submission of a copy of the audit report to the regulatory authority.
The Act also provides for inspectors who have a range of powers of entry and search in the course of monitoring or enforcing compliance with the Act. These powers include an inspector’s authority to seize an article where she or he reasonably believes that such article is evidence of an offence under the Act.
Operators who are not Seychellois can apply for a license, but that individual or corporation must appoint a Seychelles individual resident to act as its agent. The nominated individual must declare that he or she accepts the appointment for the appointment to take effect. If a license is granted, the authorized agent shall, for all purposes, be treated as the licensee and the parts of the Act which refer to a licensee shall be read and construed as references to such authorized agent.

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