The new gaming regulations allow anyone to apply to the courts for an order that can require gaming houses in The Bahamas to exclude individuals falling within certain categories. If the court agrees with an applicant's argument, the person or persons in question could be barred for up to 10 years.
Section 74(3)(a) of the bill allows any individual to go to the courts and ask that his or her family members be excluded from gaming in The Bahamas; 74(3)(b) broadens the scope to include "a person on whom the applicant is economically dependent in whole or in part".
The succeeding provisions of the legislation allow the courts to block "a person for whom the applicant is economically responsible in whole or in part"; anyone who is "subject to an order of a competent court holding that person to be mentally unfit"; and "any other person to whom the applicant has a duty of care, and whose behavior manifests symptoms of addictive or compulsive gaming".
The court may, if it considers preventing the subject of the application from gambling "reasonable and just", order that person to be registered as an excluded person.
It is also to be noted that section 74 (1) permits persons to self-register for exclusion, although in this case the period can last for one year, five years or life.
The law does allow a person excluded on someone else's application to apply to the court that made the order at any time to set aside the order, "and the court may do so if, after considering the grounds for making the original order and any new evidence before it, the court is satisfied that it is no longer reasonable and just to prevent that person from engaging in any gaming activity".
These exclusions take effect on receipt of a duly completed and signed application for exclusion and are irrevocable for the period in respect of which the exclusion has been applied for. They will lapse, where applicable, after the expiry of the period for which the exclusion was applied for.
Section 74(8) mandates that the Gaming Board develop and maintain a register of excluded persons and periodically provide each holder of an operator license issued under the act with updated versions of that list.
The law says that once a person has been placed on the exclusion list, the holder of an operator license must put in place "reasonable" measures calculated to ensure that excluded persons are not granted access to any designated areas. The law absolves license holders of liability if, notwithstanding the implementation of such reasonable measures, an excluded person gains access to any such designated area. License holders must also refuse to accept any wager from an excluded person, and may remove any excluded person found to have accessed any of its designated areas. They may even cause any excluded person found to have accessed any designated areas to be arrested on a charge of trespassing.

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