The new gaming laws require the exclusion of certain persons from proxy gaming and mandate that operators must take "all reasonable steps" to prevent an excluded individual from participating in proxy gaming.
This and other strictures are included in chapter 26, part nine, of the Gaming Regulations 2014, passed in the House of Assembly on Monday as part of a draft of legislation aimed primarily at legalizing, regulating and taxing web shops.
In addition to the new Gaming Act, proxy gaming in The Bahamas will be governed by and large by the Financial Transactions Reporting Act, the Financial Intelligence Unit Act, the regulations attendant to both acts and the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Proxy gaming is the act of having an authorized player act as a proxy, or stand-in, for the actual player to represent his or her play. For this to work, casinos must be able to ensure that the proxy is accountable to the player's instructions. Proxy betting is most often - but not exclusively - associated with online gambling. It allows any bettor around the world immediate access to his or her gaming funds to place a bet at any time or anywhere in the world with just a phone call.
The key to proxy betting is the strength of the regulations and controls and the ability of the service provider to ensure full transparency of action and seamless coordination from instructions to actions.
For example, North Cagayan in the Philippines offers proxy betting streamed over the Internet in a live, regulated casino environment, with betting monitored on three levels within the casino using a closed-circuit television (CCTV) system, live streams and secondary onsite management controls. That jurisdiction provides any number of possible set-ups for a proxy betting operator, from the establishment of dedicated live dealer space to the outsourcing of services.
In Macau, one junket promoter estimated that 10 percent of VIP winnings - about US$3 billion - came from proxy betting, in that case through phone betting.
The new Bahamian gaming regulations require proxy systems to be approved by the Gaming Board and certified by an independent testing lab. According to the regulations, proxy system operators must also provide the Gaming Board with a list of all persons who may access the main computer and data communications components of their proxy systems.
The regulations mandate internal controls for determining the tax liability of operators; for the registering of authorized players and their proxies; for the prevention of unauthorized players - this means identification measures aimed at mitigating the risk of non-face-to-face transactions - and the protection of confidentiality.
Internal controls are also required to ensure, as far as possible, that only "human individuals" engage in proxy gaming.
Section 115(3) of the regulations says that "each operator shall implement procedures that are designed to detect and prevent transactions that may be associated with money laundering, fraud and other criminal activities and to ensure compliance with all laws of The Bahamas related to the prevention and detection of money laundering."
The regulations also place restrictions on who may play, such as allowing only citizens of permitted foreign jurisdictions to participate. In this instance, there is no reference in the legislation to a list of permitted jurisdictions. The regulations set out how operators must respond to complaints from governments that claim offering proxy gaming to their residents is a violation, and require operators to use "all reasonable efforts to prevent persons who are prohibited by the act or any other applicable law from engaging in authorized gaming from establishing a proxy gaming account." Section 71 of the Gaming Act 2014 prohibits people who are visibly intoxicated from gaming. Section 74 allows for individuals to volunteer to be excluded from gaming activities for a year, five years or life. That section also permits individuals to apply to the court to prevent family members; those on whom the applicant is dependent or for whom the applicant is economically responsible; someone declared mentally unfit by a competent court and anyone whose behavior manifests symptoms of addictive or compulsive gambling.

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