Government has challenged the newly inducted Governing Board of the Gaming Commission to mitigate underage gaming in vulnerable communities.

Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony for the Commission, Ambrose Dery tasked the new board members to ensure the reduction of underage gaming in the country.

“Your appointment comes at a time that the Commission has in recent times taken bold steps to phase out analogue and non-digital gaming machines by banning the importation and licensing of same as part of measures to upgrade the industry and also to help mitigate the challenge of the underage gaming in vulnerable communities,” he said.

The swearing-in ceremony was held at the ministry’s conference room in Accra on October 20, 2021.

Private legal practitioner Gary Nimako Marfo will chair the 11-member Commission.

John Bayuo Warisa, Commissioner of Police; Arhin Kwesi Annor, MP for Okaikwei South, Dakoa Newman, Ransford Kissi Appiah, Deborah Mensah, Fredrick Asouah Yankey, Frank Raji, John Yao Agbeko, Charles Owusu and Peter Mireku are the newly inaugurated board members.

Mr Dery indicated that the Commission will soon deploy a Gaming Administration and Monitoring System (GAMS) to monitor and improve regulatory compliance in the gaming industry.

He urged them to monitor and curb avenues prone to money laundering.

“Indeed, your development of a Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing Policy Guidelines is lauded, and I urge you to continue to do more to monitor and curb the potential avenues for money laundering in the gaming industry,” he noted.

Also, a 15-member governing board of the Narcotics Control Commission was inaugurated at the same ceremony.

The commission will be chaired by J. Kaiffe Mensah.

The constitution of the governing board of the narcotics commission is in accordance with the Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020 (Act 1019), which makes provision for the establishment of the Narcotics Control Commission for offences related to narcotics drugs and plants cultivated for narcotics purposes and related matters.

Mr Dery challenged the newly inaugurated members to execute their duties with collective institutional expertise and common objective to ensure effective and efficient performance of the Commission.

He assured the board of his support and commitment to provide the needed resources for the effective running of the Commission.