Singapore Pools, MBS and RWS fined for non-compliance
SINGAPORE – The Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) has fined Singapore Pools, Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) a total of $275,000 for non-compliance.
In its annual report released on Oct 6, GRA said Singapore Pools had inadvertently allowed a self-excluded person to place bets, breaching licensing conditions under the Gambling Control Act.
MBS and RWS had breached the Casino Control (Advertising) Regulations, which restrict gaming promotions and activities.
Singapore Pools and MBS were each fined $100,000, while RWS was fined $75,000. The penalties were for different instances of non-compliance by each of the organisations.
Singapore Pools
Singapore Pools’ breach was self-discovered, a GRA spokesman said.
It had been conducting a monthly review of its suspended accounts when it discovered that the account of a self-excluded person was not suspended and the person was allowed to place bets.
Further investigation by GRA found that this had happened because of Singapore Pools’ system – when users updated Singapore Pools on a change of identification documents, it did not re-verify their exclusion status.
Individuals can apply to exclude themselves from gambling activities via the National Council on Problem Gambling’s website. This is supposed to prevent them from entering casino premises and jackpot rooms or using and opening accounts with Singapore Pools, depending on what they apply to be excluded from.
The gambling operators are expected to effect the bans on such persons.
A Singapore Pools spokeswoman said it discovered the lapse in April 2024 through its own monitoring processes and reported it to GRA.
The customer’s account was suspended within 30 minutes of detection and the system lapse has since been rectified.
MBS and RWS
GRA said it uncovered MBS’ breaches while looking into unspecified allegations it had received.
It found that from 2018 to 2023, MBS had given additional chances for various draws and promotions under its non-gaming membership programme to certain members based on their casino gaming activities.
As the promotion was tied to members’ casino gaming activities, it is considered a casino promotion, which is regulated and requires GRA’s prior approval.
But MBS did not do so and was thus non-compliant, said GRA.
When contacted, MBS declined to comment.
For RWS, GRA investigations found that the integrated resort’s members had their casino membership tiers incorrectly maintained under its approved casino membership programme.
This resulted in the programme not being carried out in accordance with GRA’s approvals between March 2022 and June 2023.
A spokeswoman for RWS said the incident was caused by application system-related errors.
She said when the errors were discovered, RWS reported them to GRA and took immediate steps to address the issue and prevent it from happening again.
AGO audit
Separately, the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) flagged multiple breaches and lapses involving MBS, RWS and Singapore Pools in its most recent report published in July.
The lapses flagged by the AGO are unrelated to the enforcement actions mentioned in GRA’s recent annual report, and investigations into the former are still ongoing.
AGO found that from 2023 to 2025, 120 individuals under exclusion orders were allowed to enter the two local casinos at MBS and RWS. It also found that 79 Singapore Pools accounts held by excluded persons were not closed.
GRA and the Ministry of Social and Family Development, which oversees the National Council on Problem Gambling, had said that the lapses were due to issues such as using different IDs and other system-related issues that affected automatic screening.
They also said the errors had been rectified as at February 2026.
