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A new gaming law aimed at bringing casinos in the north – currently believed to be magnets for money launderers - under tighter financial control, has been approved by the Turkish Cypriot side.
The move came after weeks of wrangling among Turkish Cypriot politicians over whether the EU, British and US-inspired law was desirable. Opposition parties had sought to block the bill, accusing the Republican Turkish Party’s (CTP) of trying to gain political capital ahead of the April 19 general election. Even the CTP’s right-wing junior coalition partner, the Freedom and Reform Party (ORP), refused to back the bill.
In the event, the bill was passed by a whisker when Mustafa Akinci, representing the Communal Democracy Party (TDP), added his to the CTP’s 25 votes. None of the other 24 ‘deputies’ attended the session.
Britain welcomed the move yesterday. “We applaud recent efforts by the Turkish Cypriots to improve money laundering controls,” British diplomat David Reed told the Cyprus Mail, following the news on Monday.
Facing a barrage of criticism from other opposition parties for having backed the bill, Akinci defended his action yesterday by telling the Mail that he had supported the bill because he believed it to be “the right thing to do”.
“I supported the motion because it moves us closer to EU norms, and it finally brings the casinos under regulation and control,” he said, adding: “Those who opposed the bill are trying to make out that those who supported the bill are in favour of gambling and casinos. This is not the case. What we are in favour of is regulation, which until now has not existed”.
Earlier, opposition parties had claimed the new gaming law would lead to “social collapse” because its provisions included the unprecedented step of allowing Turkish Cypriot locals access to casinos. However, despite the dropping of the clause, all opposition deputies still chose to oppose the bill.
Whatever the views of the opposition, the new gaming law may have come just in time to prevent the Financial Action Taskforce on Money Laundering (FATF), an international body set up in 1989 to counter money laundering and the funding of terrorist organisations, from putting the north on its blacklist.
According to the Erhan Ercin, head of the EU Coordination Office in the north, being put on the FATV blacklist would have had disastrous consequences for Turkish Cypriots.
“If it had happened, it would have meant that bank transfers between Turkish Cypriot banks and banks abroad would have been blocked, and if you cannot transfer money it means you cannot trade,” Ercin told the Mail. He added that with Turkey being a subscriber to FATV, the block would even have prohibited transfers between banks in the north and Turkey.
Although the breakaway state had so far managed to escape the FATV blacklist, it recently received a warning from the organisation that failure to take measures reducing the scope for money laundering at its 33 casinos could see it being listed.
Elcin said he believed the EU, which had sent delegations to the north “eight times” to help devise the new gaming law, would welcome the bill’s ratification.
“The law received the full support of the EU,” he said, adding that technical assistance had also been provided by the UK.
Under the new law, casinos have to declare earnings, pay higher rates for licences and have to fulfill a host of conditions to prove that money laundering is not taking place on their premises. Many casino owners are known to be furious about the new law.
Economist and former Turkish Cypriot ‘economy minister’ Ayse Donmezer said yesterday that the passing of the bill would go some way to reducing the north’s image as a centre for money laundering and that Turkish Cypriot banks and foreign banks based in the north would undoubtedly be breathing a sigh of relief.
“The bankers association fully supported the bill,” she said. |
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