New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CASINO, LIQUOR AND GAMING CONTROL AUTHORITY ACT 2007 - SECT 17

17 Secrecy

(1) A person who acquires information in the exercise of functions under the gaming and liquor legislation must not, directly or indirectly:

(a) make a record of the information, or

(b) divulge the information to another person,

except in the exercise of functions under the gaming and liquor legislation.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units.

(2) Despite subsection (1), information may be divulged:

(a) to a particular person or persons, if the Authority certifies that it is necessary in the public interest that the information be divulged to the person or persons, or

(b) to a person or body prescribed by the regulations, or

(c) to a person who is expressly or impliedly authorised to obtain it by the person to whom the information relates, or

(d) to the Minister, or to a person who is engaged in the administration of the gaming and liquor legislation and is authorised in writing by the Minister to receive information under this section.

(3) Information to which section 143C of the Casino Control Act 1992 applies may not be divulged under subsection (2) except with the consent of the Commissioner of Police.

(4) A person cannot be required:

(a) to produce in any court any document or other thing that has come into the person’s possession, custody or control by reason of, or in the course of, the exercise of the person’s functions under the gaming and liquor legislation, or

(b) to divulge to any court any information that has come to the person’s notice in the exercise of the person’s functions under that legislation.

(5) Despite subsection (4), a person may be required to produce a document or other thing in a court or to divulge information to a court if:

(a) the Authority certifies that it is necessary in the public interest to do so, or

(b) a person to whom the information relates (or to whom the information contained in the document or thing relates) has expressly authorised it to be divulged to or produced in the court.

(6) A person or body to whom or which information is divulged under subsection (2), and a person or employee under the control of that person or body, are, in respect of that information, subject to the same rights, privileges and duties under this section as they would be if that person, body or employee were a person exercising functions under the gaming and liquor legislation and had acquired the information in the exercise of those functions.

(7) This section does not apply to the divulging of information to, or the production of any document or other thing to, any of the following:

(a) the New South Wales Crime Commission,

(b) the Independent Commission Against Corruption,

(c) the Australian Crime Commission,

(d) the NSW Police Force or the police force of another State or a Territory,

(e) the Australian Federal Police,

(f) any other person or body prescribed for the purposes of this subsection.

(8) This section does not prevent a person being given access to a document in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1989 , unless the document:

(a) contains matter the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to do any of the following:

(i) prejudice the investigation of any contravention or possible contravention of the law (including any revenue law) whether generally or in a particular case,

(ii) enable the existence or identity of any confidential source of information, in relation to the enforcement or administration of the law, to be ascertained,

(iii) prejudice the effectiveness of any lawful method or procedure for preventing, detecting, investigating or dealing with any contravention or possible contravention of the law (including any revenue law), or

(b) is a document the disclosure of which would disclose any of the following information:

(i) information concerning the business, commercial, professional or financial affairs of an applicant for a casino licence under the Casino Control Act 1992 or a licence under Part 4 of that Act,

(ii) information obtained in the course of an investigation of an application for such a licence,

(iii) information concerning the system of internal controls and administrative and accounting procedures for a casino.

(9) In this section:
"court" includes any tribunal, authority or person having power to require the production of documents or the answering of questions.
"produce" includes permit access to.