Fines to soar, prison terms hit 30 years under proposed alcohol and gambling laws

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

Fines for al­co­hol, to­bac­co, cannabis and gam­bling of­fences are set to soar, some by hun­dreds of thou­sands or even mil­lions of dol­lars, while prison terms for sev­er­al of­fences could climb to as much as 30 years un­der tough new penal­ties pro­posed by the Gov­ern­ment.

The in­creas­es are con­tained in the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Al­co­hol, Cannabis, Dan­ger­ous Drugs, Gam­bling and To­bac­co) Bill, 2026, which seeks to amend sev­en ex­ist­ing pieces of leg­is­la­tion.

Among the most sig­nif­i­cant changes, know­ing­ly sell­ing al­co­hol to some­one un­der 21 could car­ry 15 years in prison on a first con­vic­tion, ris­ing to 20 years for a sec­ond of­fence and 30 years for a third or sub­se­quent of­fence.

Us­ing or hir­ing a child to sell, buy or de­liv­er al­co­hol could al­so at­tract a $300,000 fine and 30 years be­hind bars, com­pared with the ex­ist­ing penal­ty of $6,000 and three years.

While much of the at­ten­tion has been placed on Gov­ern­ment's de­ci­sion to in­crease the per­mis­si­ble ages, the Bill al­so sub­stan­tial­ly in­creas­es the con­se­quences for breach­ing the laws.

Un­der the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion, the min­i­mum age for the sale, pur­chase, pos­ses­sion or con­sump­tion of al­co­hol and to­bac­co will rise from 18 to 21, while the cor­re­spond­ing age for cannabis and the min­i­mum per­mis­si­ble age for gam­bling will move to 25.

The Bill tar­gets peo­ple be­low the new le­gal ages. Those aged 18 to 20 could face a $50,000 fine for drink­ing or pos­sess­ing al­co­hol, or smok­ing or pos­sess­ing to­bac­co, while those aged 18 to 24 could face the same penal­ty for us­ing or pos­sess­ing cannabis. The of­fences al­so ex­tend to pos­ses­sion for use as a couri­er or for traf­fick­ing.

For chil­dren over ten, the Bill sim­i­lar­ly pro­vides for a $50,000 fine for of­fences in­clud­ing drink­ing or pos­sess­ing al­co­hol and pos­sess­ing or us­ing to­bac­co, cannabis or dan­ger­ous drugs.

In these cas­es, po­lice could in­stead is­sue a fixed-penal­ty no­tice, with the per­son giv­en the op­tion of pay­ing the pre­scribed penal­ty or un­der­tak­ing a re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive pro­gramme.

Some of the biggest in­creas­es con­cern the sale of al­co­hol to peo­ple be­low the new per­mis­si­ble age.

Sec­tion 60 of the Liquor Li­cences Act cur­rent­ly pro­hibits know­ing­ly sell­ing or al­low­ing some­one to sell al­co­hol to some­one un­der 18. The Bill rais­es that thresh­old to 21 and re­places the ex­ist­ing penal­ties with sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er fines and prison terms.

A first con­vic­tion would car­ry a $50,000 fine and 15 years' im­pris­on­ment.

For a sec­ond of­fence, the penal­ty would rise to $150,000 and 20 years, while a third or sub­se­quent of­fence could re­sult in a $300,000 fine and 30 years in prison.

There is an even larg­er in­crease for us­ing chil­dren to sell, pur­chase or de­liv­er al­co­hol.

Sec­tion 60A cur­rent­ly makes it an of­fence to use, cause to be used or hire a child, in­clud­ing as a couri­er, to sell, buy or de­liv­er in­tox­i­cat­ing liquor.

The ex­ist­ing penal­ty of $6,000 and three years' im­pris­on­ment would in­crease to $300,000 and 30 years.

That amounts to a 50-fold in­crease in the fine and a ten­fold in­crease in the prison term.

The Bill al­so cre­ates a new of­fence for cer­tain liquor li­cence hold­ers who know­ing­ly in­vite, cause or per­mit a child to be in the part of their premis­es where al­co­hol is sold or con­sumed.

The pro­posed fine is $300,000 and the es­tab­lish­ment's liquor li­cence could al­so be re­voked.

There are ex­cep­tions, in­clud­ing where part of the li­censed premis­es is the child's home or where the child is eat­ing a meal or at­tend­ing a func­tion un­der the su­per­vi­sion of a par­ent, guardian or re­spon­si­ble adult. How­ev­er, the meal ex­cep­tion would not ap­ply to a child at a night bar af­ter 9 pm.

For gam­bling, the per­mis­si­ble age will rise to 25.

The Bill amends the Gam­bling (Gam­ing and Bet­ting) Con­trol Act to make it an of­fence to know­ing­ly in­vite, cause or per­mit some­one un­der 25 to gam­ble.

It would al­so pro­hib­it know­ing­ly invit­ing, caus­ing or per­mit­ting some­one un­der 25 to en­ter li­censed gam­bling premis­es, oth­er than a race track.

A per­son un­der 25 who gam­bles, en­ters or is found on gam­bling premis­es, oth­er than a race track, could face a $50,000 fine, al­though the leg­is­la­tion pro­vides for a fixed-penal­ty or re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive pro­gramme sys­tem for spec­i­fied of­fences.

The Bill al­so in­creas­es the penal­ty for fail­ing to post and main­tain re­quired gam­bling sig­nage from $50,000 to $100,000.

How­ev­er, as with al­co­hol, the amend­ments do not ex­press­ly say that the min­i­mum em­ploy­ment age at every gam­bling es­tab­lish­ment is be­ing raised to 25.

The le­gal age for to­bac­co would rise from 18 to 21, along­side sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er penal­ties.

Of­fences in­clud­ing sell­ing to­bac­co to some­one un­der­age, pub­lic dis­plays, self-ser­vice sales and sell­ing to­bac­co at pro­hib­it­ed lo­ca­tions such as schools and health fa­cil­i­ties would at­tract up to $300,000 and ten years in prison for a first of­fence, ris­ing to $600,000 and 20 years for sub­se­quent of­fences.

Oth­er breach­es, in­clud­ing un­li­censed to­bac­co op­er­a­tions, ad­ver­tis­ing and pack­ag­ing vi­o­la­tions, could at­tract $500,000 and 15 years on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion, or up to $1 mil­lion and 30 years on in­dict­ment.

For cannabis, the min­i­mum age will move to 25.

One of the largest penal­ty in­creas­es in­volves sell­ing cannabis to some­one be­low the per­mis­si­ble age.

The ex­ist­ing of­fence ap­plies to dis­pens­ing cannabis to a child and car­ries a penal­ty of $250,000 and five years' im­pris­on­ment.

The Bill ex­pands that pro­hi­bi­tion to any­one un­der 25 and in­creas­es the pun­ish­ment to $500,000 and 30 years.

It al­so in­tro­duces a $50,000 of­fence for a per­son un­der 25 who breach­es that re­stric­tion, sub­ject to the Bill's fixed-penal­ty and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­vi­sions.

The changes do not nec­es­sar­i­ly mean that a young per­son will be barred from work­ing any­where al­co­hol is sold.

For ex­am­ple, an 18, 19 or 20-year-old could still work at a su­per­mar­ket that sells al­co­hol. While the Bill would pre­vent that work­er from legal­ly buy­ing, pos­sess­ing or con­sum­ing the al­co­hol them­selves, it does not im­pose a blan­ket rule that every­one work­ing at a busi­ness which sells liquor must be 21 or old­er.

The rules are dif­fer­ent for reg­is­tered clubs (pri­vate mem­bers’ clubs, sport­ing clubs, so­cial clubs or recre­ation­al clubs). There, the Bill rais­es cer­tain age re­stric­tions to 25, mean­ing some younger work­ers who can cur­rent­ly be em­ployed at these es­tab­lish­ments would no longer qual­i­fy once the new law takes ef­fect.

Gam­bling es­tab­lish­ments would al­so face much tighter re­stric­tions in­volv­ing young peo­ple.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar first an­nounced the planned age in­creas­es in Ju­ly 2025, fol­low­ing through on pro­pos­als raised dur­ing the gen­er­al elec­tion cam­paign.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar has linked the pol­i­cy to con­cerns about the ef­fects of mar­i­jua­na use on young peo­ple and the im­pact of gam­bling ad­dic­tion and al­co­holism on in­di­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies.

She has sub­se­quent­ly de­scribed the pol­i­cy as an at­tempt to give young peo­ple "a fight­ing chance to pros­per and be pro­tect­ed from de­struc­tive vices."

The Bill al­so es­tab­lish­es fixed-penal­ty and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive pro­grammes for sev­er­al of­fences com­mit­ted by peo­ple be­low the new age thresh­olds, al­low­ing for mea­sures in­clud­ing com­mu­ni­ty work or coun­selling in spec­i­fied cir­cum­stances in­stead of pro­ceed­ing im­me­di­ate­ly to con­vic­tion.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia that the Bill re­quires on­ly a sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty for pas­sage in Par­lia­ment.

AL­CO­HOL — UN­DER 21

Pur­chase/pos­ses­sion/con­sump­tion: $50,000

TO­BAC­CO — UN­DER 21

Pur­chase/pos­ses­sion/use: $50,000

CANNABIS — UN­DER 25

Use/pos­ses­sion in breach of age re­stric­tion: $50,000

GAM­BLING — UN­DER 25

Gam­bling/en­ter­ing gam­bling premis­es: $50,000

TOUGHER FINES & PRISON TERMS PRO­POSED

AL­CO­HOL

Sell­ing al­co­hol to un­der-21s

1st of­fence: $50,000 + 15 years

2nd of­fence: $150,000 + 20 years

3rd/sub­se­quent: $300,000 + 30 years

Us­ing a child to sell/buy/de­liv­er al­co­hol

Cur­rent: $6,000 + 3 years

Pro­posed: $300,000 + 30 years

TO­BAC­CO

Sell­ing to un­der-21s & oth­er spec­i­fied of­fences

1st of­fence: Up to $300,000 + 10 years

Sub­se­quent: Up to $600,000 + 20 years

Oth­er spec­i­fied breach­es

Sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion: $500,000 + 15 years

In­dict­ment: Up to $1M + 30 years

CANNABIS

Sell­ing/dis­pens­ing cannabis to un­der-25s

Cur­rent: $250,000 + 5 years

Pro­posed: $500,000 + 30 years

GAM­BLING

Per­mis­si­ble age ris­es to 25

Un­der-25 gam­bling/pres­ence of­fence: $50,000

Sig­nage breach: $50,000 → $100,000