Bermuda: Search still on for top post within gambling regulating sector

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(CMC) – More than a year after American, Richard Schuetz resigned as the director of Bermuda’s regulating industry, with a warning that the island is incapable of keeping criminals out of the industry,, the search is still on for his replacement.

Schuetz resigned from his post at the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission (BCGC) in July last year.

It is understood the job has been advertised at least three times since then, most recently last week.

Legislators gave the green light for casinos to be introduced in the island almost four years ago, but from the outset Bermuda’s leading banks said they would not bank casinos, according to former commission chairman Alan Dunch.

Tourism Minister Jamahl Simmons said in July that Deborah Blakeney, the BCGC’s general counsel, would fill the role of executive director on a temporary basis

But applications are again being sought for someone to take the job on a permanent basis and be “responsible for the daily operations of the commission”.

The job advertisement said that duties included making sure gambling on the island was run “with the highest standards of honesty and integrity”.

The advertisement added the successful applicant would be expected to work in a “co-operative and collaborative manner with all applicable agencies both within and outside of Bermuda”.

Candidates must have seven years’ experience in casino gambling or regulation and anyone shortlisted would have to undergo “robust” background checks and that whoever got the three-year contract “may not hold any other office or employment”.

Schuetz, a casino industry veteran, was appointed in 2015 and worked a notice period before he left the island last December to return to the United States.

He suggested in his resignation letter that Bermuda should “seriously consider” ditching gaming altogether or risk its reputation as a clean financial jurisdiction.

“My primary reason for resigning is that I have lost confidence that the government of Bermuda and its legal system can provide the necessary protections to offer well-regulated casino gaming on the island.

“I sincerely believe that this island will prove incapable of keeping people with questionable backgrounds and behaviours away from the industry,” he wrote.

Dunch, under pressure from Simmons, quit as commission chairman last November after the new Progressive Labour Party government tabled legislation to allow the Tourism Minister to fire members of the BCGC and issue policy directions to the regulatory body.

The Nevada-based publisher of Global Gaming Business Magazine, Roger Gros, told the Royal Gazette newspaper that the recent job advertisement was “sensible”.

“The reputation of the Bermuda gaming industry now is not high. It’s going to be tough for them to get somebody who can really do the job and have that integrity that they need. I don’t know if they’re going to be able to find that person, he added.

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