Great Sparta

About Great Sparta

Two years later, Buffett again targeted the “gamblification” of financial markets in his annual shareholder letter.

“Markets now exhibit far more casino-like behavior than they did when I was young. The casino now resides in many homes and daily tempts the occupants,” Buffett wrote, noting that extreme volatility makes identifying sound, long-term investments vastly more difficult.

“One fact of financial life should never be forgotten. Wall Street–to use the term in its figurative sense–would like its customers to make money, but what truly causes its denizens’ juices to flow is feverish activity. At such times, whatever foolishness can be marketed will be vigorously marketed–not by everyone but always by someone,” Buffett warned.

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The bill would amend the Gambling Authority Act to align it more closely with the Financial Intelligence Act and Financial Action Task Force standards. Its memorandum says the changes are intended to strengthen anti-money laundering requirements and reduce financial crime risks.

The proposed amendments include provisions on beneficial ownership, financial and controlling interests, fit-and-proper-person assessments and know-your-customer requirements. They would also require Authority approval for the acquisition of a direct or indirect financial or controlling interest of 5% or more, unless a lower threshold is prescribed.

The bill would require most licence holders to link gambling machines and devices installed on their premises to the Gambling Authority’s statutory monitoring system. Casino and bingo licence holders would be required to install their own monitoring systems instead.

About Great Sparta

It called for any such acts to be reported immediately to the Ministry of Finance and the Directorate General of Administrative, Judicial, State Property and Equity Revenues (DGRAD).

The DGRAD has been tasked with identifying and securing the cancellation of any irregularly issued payment notices.

The Ministry of Finance stated that any approval, authorisation, payment notice or other act issued by a department without authorisation was “devoid of legal effect”, with operators still liable for fulfilling their obligations to the DRC’s Public Treasury.