Dice rolling in thru’ legal cracks

Taking advantage of loopholes in laws and policies, importers brought in at least five consignments of gambling equipment.

Even though a 152-year-old law prohibits gambling and the constitution assigns the state to “adopt effective measures to prevent prostitution and gambling”, the Import Policy Order (IPO) 2015-18 does not restrict the import of slot machines and blackjack, poker and roulette tables, coins and chips found in several clubs in the capital recently.

After law enforcers found these the Customs Intelligence & Investigation Directorate (CIID) started looking into how the gambling equipment were imported.

The CIID, under the National Board of Revenue, found that the five consignments arrived between December 2016 and November 2018 and were cleared for release by the customs officials at Hazarat Shahjalal International Airport, Inland Container Depot at Kamalapur, and Benapole Land Port.

Investigators suspect that six other consignments of such equipment have been brought in.

CIID officials said four importers were behind this.

Customs officials at the Dhaka airport released gambling chips imported by AM Islam & Sons in December 2016, officials have found.

Farhad Hossain, director of Kawser Cargo Complex Ltd, Clearing and Forwarding (C&F) agent of AM Islam & Sons, said they represented the importer while getting the consignment released and did not know what was being brought in.

Pushpita Enterprise had a consignment of poker chips released from the ICD at Kamalapur last year, officials said.

Asked, its proprietor Palash said he could not remember importing any such thing.

Ahsanul Azim, proprietor of A3 Trade International, told The Daily Star, that his company imported three “poker sets” and “roulette sets” through Benapole in November 2017.

He added that two people from Gulshan and Mirpur bought them from him. He said he has detailed information about the buyers.

Most of the equipment were imported from China and some from Thailand. Investigators suspect that foreign participants of international trade fairs, people who import capital machinery could have imported the equipment.

Investigators are quizzing the importers, looking for documents, and trying to locate the equipment, officials said.

They are also investigating whether the equipment were bought through money laundering.

Officers suspect that the importers sold the equipment to the clubs, CIID Director General Shahidul Islam said.

However, more gambling equipment may have been imported through false labelling.

“We suspect that the actual price of the goods has not been mentioned to evade duty,” said a CIID official.

Price of a roulette table set, for instance, would be more than $100,000, the official said.

According to a document obtained by this paper, a roulette table set was imported with an invoice value of just $400.

Several coin-operated machines were imported and the CIID was examining whether those were slot machines or arcade games.

According to the Public Gambling Act of 1867, gambling houses are prohibited. But the Import Policy Order 2015-18 does not list gambling equipment as prohibited or controlled goods.

As a result, the goods were released.

IS IT LEGAL?

Two supreme court lawyers termed import and clearance by customs unlawful.

AM Aminuddin, president of Supreme Court Bar Association, said since gambling is prohibited, import of anything related to gambling cannot be allowed.

“As these are also not listed as importable goods in the IPO [Import Policy Order], casino-related items cannot be imported,” he said, adding, “And if customs gives clearance to anything related to casinos, it had violated the law.”

SC lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua said since gambling is not allowed by the constitution and law, import of such items is also not allowed.

“These machines and items cleared for release were not imported only for keepsake. Customs should have asked questions like who would use them? How would these items be used when there is no law that allows casinos in the country?” he asked.

He said customs should have sought clarification from the law ministry or the attorney general’s office.

“It appears that all quarters took advantage of the law owing to its ambiguity,” said Jyotirmoy.

Mohammad Golam Sarwar, lecturer of the department of law at Dhaka University, said, “Customs officials could have used their discretion and done due diligence before clearing the items for release.”

A senior official of the NBR said the officials should have applied common sense.

“Customs officials should have questioned importers and asked for permits from ministries concerned,” the official said, seeking anonymity.

“If anyone clears goods based only on Import Policy Order, they have to take responsibility for it … ,” the official said.

Asked about the import of “roulette sets” and “poker sets”, Mohammad Belal Hossain Chowdhury, commissioner at Benapole Customs House, claimed that his department examined the consignment and found that most of the items were toys and weighed between 260gm and 1.6kg.

Dhaka Customs House Commissioner Moazzem Hossain said his office would examine the import and clearance of gambling-related items and take steps.

Anwar Hossain, commissioner of Customs House at ICD Kamalapur, said, “We released the goods as per the order, since the order did not mention that casino-related equipment was prohibited.”

“We only enforce the law. The decision has to be taken by the Ministry of Commerce… ,” he said.

NBR officials said the Import Policy Order is renewed every three years. As the new order 2019-2021 is yet to be finalised, there is scope for changes.

Commerce Secretary Jafar Uddin said the ministry was looking into how the equipment were imported.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Lawyer Jyotirmoy said a substantive law was required regarding casinos.

Lecturer Sarwar said the colonial public gambling law failed to address various facets of gambling that are emerging in this digital age. He recommended enacting a new law.