AGO: 120 excluded persons entered casinos despite gambling exclusion orders

The Auditor-General's Office (AGO) released its Report of the Auditor-General for the financial year 2025/26 on 15 July 2026, raising 136 audit findings across government ministries, statutory boards and government-owned companies, of which 29 were assessed significant enough to detail in the report.

Among the statutory boards named was the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Singapore (GRA), where auditors found gaps in the safeguards meant to keep excluded persons and casino employees out of local casinos.

An exclusion order bars an individual from gambling activities, including entering casinos and placing bets with Singapore Pools, while visit limits cap how often an individual may enter a casino each month; a separate condition bars licensed casino "special employees," such as dealers and slot attendants, from gambling or gaming in any Singapore casino, as both an anti-collusion measure and a safeguard for staff themselves.

Excluded persons not kept out of casinos

AGO analysed casino entry, exclusion and special employee records obtained from the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and GRA for the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2025, and found 120 excluded persons had entered the two local casinos while under exclusion orders.

Of these, 107 were later reported to GRA by the casino operators, having entered the casinos 1,100 times in total; 12 of them had entered more than 20 times each before being reported, with delays of between 43 and 626 days after their first entry. The remaining 13 excluded persons, who entered 108 times combined, were never reported at all.

"GRA explained that the 13 EPs who entered the casinos unreported had used a different ID from that in the EP records, as they had not updated their new IDs with MSF, the system owner," the report said. MSF is targeting June 2026 to implement an IT solution to retrieve updated identification records, and said it would also conduct ad hoc sampling of records to ensure data accuracy.

Separately, 26 individuals were allowed to enter casinos despite having exceeded their monthly visit limits, doing so a combined 102 times more than permitted over the two-year period.

Singapore Pools accounts not closed

Auditors also found that 79 Singapore Pools accounts belonging to excluded persons were not closed to prevent remote gambling. Of these, 32 account holders placed 1,358 bets online worth about S$75,800 between 1 April 2024 and 31 December 2025, while still under exclusion orders.

GRA and MSF attributed the lapses to "data migration issues resulting in inaccurate EP records, missing system logic in the daily screening batch job, or other system-related issues affecting the automated screening checks," according to the report, adding that the errors had been rectified as of February 2026.

As at 3 March 2026, 18 of the 79 accounts had been closed, while the remaining 61 stayed active because the account holders' exclusion orders had since been lifted; GRA said it had commenced investigations into possible regulatory offences committed by the excluded persons concerned, and had, together with MSF, established a structured communication protocol so that system changes or rectifications with enforcement implications could be promptly acted on.

Casino employees showing signs of gambling

Under their licence conditions, casino special employees must not gamble or game in any casino in Singapore. Auditors found 194 licensed special employees had entered either casino through the public route a combined 1,628 times over the two-year period, with several indicators suggesting gambling or gaming may have taken place.

The report noted that individual visit counts ranged from 1 to 148, and that for some employees, cumulative stays at the casinos totalled as long as 11 to 34 hours.

"Without adequate monitoring mechanisms, potential breaches by SEs could go undetected, undermining GRA's intended outcomes for imposing the licence condition," the report said.

GRA's response

On the excluded persons investigations, GRA said it had commenced action against those involved and would continue maintaining regulatory oversight of Singapore Pools through ongoing monitoring and supervision.

MSF said it would strengthen its system control framework, including more rigorous scenario testing and systematic validation checks on production data and system configurations.

On the casino employees, GRA said it had asked casino operators to remind staff of their obligations and licence conditions, and would reiterate this during townhalls in the second half of 2026, warning that disciplinary action could follow for non-compliance. It added that it would carry out targeted checks, supported by data analytics, by June 2027.