A new centralised authority to oversee gambling here will be established by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) by next year.
The Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) will be a statutory board, and will be reconstituted from the current Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA).
It will consolidate and optimise gambling regulatory resources within a single agency, allowing the authorities to stay abreast of gambling trends and take a more holistic approach to policies and issues, the MHA said yesterday.
Currently, different government agencies oversee various aspects of gambling, with the CRA regulating the casinos, and the MHA's Gambling Regulatory Unit regulating remote gambling services and fruit machines.
The Singapore Totalisator Board governs all land-based gambling services operated by the Singapore Pools.
The GRA will work with the Ministry of Social and Family Development and the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), among other partners, to address gambling issues. The police will continue to crack down on illegal gambling.
The MHA said it will also review and amend gambling-related legislation by next year, to ensure that such laws keep pace with the evolving landscape.
Technology has made gambling more accessible, and changed the way people gamble. Businesses have thus evolved to introduce gambling elements in products not traditionally seen as gambling, said the MHA.
Legislation will be amended to ensure that regulatory mechanisms can address such evolving gambling products and models, added the ministry.
"For example, we will study the need to regulate products such as 'mystery boxes'. We will also review the penalties for offences to ensure consistency across remote and terrestrial gambling," said the MHA, referring to games of chance where users purchase a box of items without knowing the value of the items.
It will engage other stakeholders like gambling operators and religious organisations to take in their views in the coming year.
"Even as we update our laws, MHA will retain a generally prohibitive stance towards gambling, and continue to maintain a risk-based regulatory approach towards existing gambling operators."
Industry insiders said the move is timely, given the changing gambling landscape.
Vending machines dispensing "mystery" prizes, for example, used to be popular here, with at least four operators setting up shop in arcades, shopping centres and retail shops.
Experts said the effect of such machines was not unlike gambling, as the user had no control over a random and unpredictable outcome.
The police issued a statement in 2018, advising all merchants of such machines to stop operating.
NCPG chairman Tan Kian Hoon said the council will work with the new gambling body on issues relating to problem gambling, and develop and implement programmes on problem gambling.
