Enforce Bye-laws On Gaming Centres

The Eastern Region Child Protection Committee (RCPC) has called on the various municipal and district assemblies in the region to enforce the bye-laws on gaming centres.

The RCPC said this would ensure that children are prevented from patronizing the gaming centres to the detriment of their education.

Mr Harrison Tete-Donkor, the Chairman of the RCPC, said the rise in the gaming centres business was alarming considering the high patronage of the centres by school going children.

He said in Koforidua, a special team collating information on these gaming centres doubling as internet cafés, has identified 10 of such facilities being patronized by children.

Mr Tete-Donkor, who doubles as the Eastern Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare, said Section 48 of the Nation Gaming Act prohibits children from coming near the centres and there is the need to enforce this Act.

He said despite the alarming rate of children patronizing these centres even during school hours, the New Juaben Municipal Assembly had not shown any commitment to support his outfit to address the concern.

The gaming centres, though are licensed by the National Communication Authority and the National Gaming Commission, it's the assemblies that grant them the business operating permits within their jurisdictions, he said.

The assemblies in this regard have a responsibility through their social services committees to protect children from patronizing these centres.

The RCPC at its first quarter meeting in Koforidua instituted a three-man delegation to engage the National Communications Authority and the Gaming Commission on ways to forestall the involvement of children in their activities.

The Committee also discussed other issues affecting the wellbeing of children and cited child prostitution and teenage pregnancies, exploitative labour of children as some of the issues to be focused on.

GNA
By Bertha Badu-Agyei, GNA