Several government entities are in a process of building a regulatory system for slot machines and also amending the gaming policy and regulations to ensure curbing of gross irregularities that led to the suspension of the industry, The New Times has learnt. According to the acting Director General of Industry Promotion and Entrepreneurship Development Department at the Ministry of Trade, Evalde Mulindankaka, licenses will be re-issued after proper regulatory systems are in place. “We are working with the Ministry of ICT together with Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA) to build a system that regulates the business so that we can know how much they make and the taxes they pay,” he said. The slot machines business was marred with irregularities like unauthorized license sharing and illegal assembling of the machines. This was being done in different parts of the country which made it hard to trace the origin of the irregularities leading to a total suspension of the industry on October 20. “Some of these businesses have been abusing licenses we issue to them by illegally sharing them with other operators. We suspended them until we get a better regulation system in place,” he said Mulindankaka said that the manufacturing and assembling of slot machines has been illegally going on and whoever wants would get it at the market and start operating without regulations. He added that spare parts for slot machines have been passing through customs under different names, which means the situation was out of control. “Investigations are still ongoing on how the spare parts passed through customs and who has been bringing them in Rwanda and under which names,” he said Mulindankaka mentioned that there are considerations on changing the gaming policy and regulations and coming up with a system that will regulate the taxation and legal operation of this business. According to Clement Mbabazi, a slot machine operator said that he was equally concerned by the irregularities but the Ministry should have notified the operators before enacting a suspension. “Taking the decision of suspending licensed operators affects our business operations we have engaged the ministry about this and we are waiting for feedback,” he said
