Authorities say around $100 million is spent on the vice every year. They have a fair idea about how many clandestine operations there are around town and can estimate how many people are hooked on it, but what remains elusive is putting an end to the illegal numbers racket.
Bahamians engaging in gambling is against the law in the Bahamas, but it hasn’t stopped thousands of them from participating in it.
In fact, the Chairman of the Gaming Board Kenyatta Gibson says at least 60 percent of the population gamble illegally. Over the last few months, he has been spearheading the collection of data on national lotteries to help the government decide what its position will be.
Mr. Gibson on Tuesday stood up to Christian critics who point to moral and social negatives that may likely result from a national lottery or legal gambling.
“I live in a real world,” he said on the Love 97 talk show ‘Issues of the Day.’ “If there are so many people engaged in this industry, if there is such huge profits from this industry, should it not be first and foremost that the people of the Bahamas have the right to do what they will with their discretionary income?”
But he insisted that the industry has to be regulated.
According to intelligence reports, there are around 45 illegal number houses on the island and about 12 in Grand Bahama with a growing number in Abaco, Harbour Island and Exuma, Mr Gibson said.
Last year, the Minister responsible for gaming Obie Wilchcombe estimated that Bahamians spend approximately $1.8 million every week on the foreign lottery.
“That figure might as well be $100 million a year,” Mr Gibson said. “That’s what our intelligence tells us.”
But in light of all the information that officials have collected the illegal numbers racket is a thriving operation.
“You have to catch the ‘fella’ in the commission of an offence if you want to close him down and sometimes that is easier said than done because methods have become very sophisticated,” said Mr. Gibson in response to a question about why the operations continue to flourish in light of all the intelligence that has been gathered.
The debate has been smouldering for years, with religious opponents, like Bahamas Christian Council President Bishop Samuel Greene and Senate Vice President Rev. Dr. C.B. Moss raising vehement arguments.
“It has a very, very serious social cost to it because there is a tremendous hidden cost that is associated with it in terms of social dislocation,” Rev. Moss has said. “It increases crime.”
But those who are in favour of a national lottery, including Mr. Gibson, insist that there is no scientific evidence or other data to support the brazen claim.
“His [Rev. Moss’] analysis is too general and too wide in scope and I disagree with it. There is no scientific evidence whatsoever…that the proliferation of a national lottery in any state or country in which it presently exists increases crime. It is ludicrous,” he said.
The Bahama Journal
