SINGAPORE — From March 1, amusement centres and fun fair operators face hefty fines and may even lose their licence if they breach new rules designed to stop them from offering high-value prizes that make playing parlour games similar to gambling.

In a press release on Thursday (Feb 1), the Ministry of Home Affairs said that operators would face regulatory action under the Public Entertainments Act, including fines of up to S$20,000 and have their public entertainment licence suspended or revoked.

Operators may also be liable for conducting unlawful gambling under the Gambling Control Act, with penalties of a fine of up to S$500,000 and a jail term of up to seven years, MHA added.

The new restrictions include:

• The value of the prizes must be under S$100
• Operators of amusement centres and fun fairs must not offer cash, cash equivalents, credit, merchant vouchers or coupons as prizes
• The sell-back of prizes to operators will be prohibited

The ministry said that it notified all operators of these restrictions on Feb 6 last year so that they had "time to manage their existing inventory of high-value prizes".

MHA also issued an advisory to operators on Wednesday to encourage operators to inform their customers of the upcoming restrictions, including putting up notices on their premises.

At an October parliamentary sitting last year, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam flagged the changes that were to come.

In reply to a question, he said that offering high-value prizes "may increase the risk of gambling inducement, in particular with vulnerable persons such as youths".

In 2021, MHA conducted a public consultation on a review of gambling laws.

The ministry said in its report that "there remains a need for safeguards to ensure that these activities do not induce gambling behaviour and cause social problems".

It said then that the introduction of a cap of S$100 would be enough to address the "inducement effect of high-value prizes", without increasing the regulatory burden on operators.  

In a survey done in 2020, 70 per cent and 68 per cent of respondents agreed that S$100 was an appropriate limit for mystery boxes and arcade games respectively, the ministry said.

"Of those who disagreed, about 90 per cent suggested a stricter approach — they suggested a lower cap for both types of games, with the median value suggested being less than S$50," MHA said in its 2020 report.