Casino loyalty schemes

Date Made

Date signed: 2013-06-30

Sectors

Casinos

Enacting statement

In accordance with section 159(3) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 ("AML/CFT Act"), the Minister of Justice hereby gave notice on 14 March 2013 that she has granted the following exemptions from the AML/CFT Act: 

Ministerial Exemption: Casino loyalty schemes 

Commencement date

This exemption comes into force on 2013-06-30

End date

This exemption will expire on 2018-06-30

Exemption

As the Minister of Justice, and pursuant to section 157 of the AML/CFT Act, I exempt casinos as a class of reporting entities from the following provisions of the Act: 

1. 1. Sections 14(a)-(c), 22(1)(a), 22(1)(a), 22(1)(b), 22(2) and 26 (customer due diligence); and
   2. section 31 (ongoing customer due diligence and account monitoring), subject to clause 4. 

Conditions

It is a condition of this exemption that the exemption only applies to a business relationship which is membership in a gaming loyalty scheme operated by a casino. For the purposes of this exemption, a gaming loyalty scheme is a scheme that: 

1. 1.  generates points or credit exclusively through:
      1. gambling; or
      2. gambling and purchase of food and beverages; or
      3. gambling and purchase of hotel accommodation; or
      4. gambling and purchase of food and beverages and hotel accommodation. 
         
         
   2. meets the following criteria: 
      
      1. A person cannot deposit funds or credit into a gaming loyalty scheme account or other loyalty arrangement or any associated loyalty card or instrument; and 
      2. a person can only hold one gaming loyalty scheme account or arrangement at a time and it is not transferable; and
      3. the maximum value of points or credit where points or credit can be redeemed in cash in a gaming loyalty scheme account or arrangement is $5,999.99; and
      4. gaming loyalty scheme points or credit expire after 12 months from the date of the points accrual.

Statement of reasons

This exemption applies to gaming loyalty scheme cards or instruments that are used by a customer for the purpose of utilising membership in a gaming loyalty scheme. This exemption does not apply to other functions a gaming loyalty card or instrument may facilitate. 

Exemption from account monitoring obligations applies only to the obligation to monitor the generation of loyalty points and the redemption of loyalty points. The exemption does not affect the obligation to conduct other account monitoring that might identify grounds for reporting a suspicious transaction. 

The proposed exemption from account monitoring does not affect obligations under section 40 of the Act to report suspicious transactions. 

Contact

Any person wishing to provide comment on this notice should contact the AML/CFT Team at the Ministry of Justice by emailing amlcft.exemptions@justice.govt.nz