Prime Minister Perry Christie announced last week that his government will be bringing in consultants from South Africa who will be advising the government on how to proceed with legalising and regulating the numbers business in The Bahamas.
And that would be less than incredible were it not for this key thing – the numbers business is illegal in South Africa. The legal forms of gambling in South Africa are horse betting, casinos and a national lottery.
The National Gambling Board of South Africa states that interactive online gaming and the betting on the fall of numbers in a different jurisdiction there is illegal – and in terms of the history of this issue there, an attempt a few years ago to legalise the numbers racket failed in part due to concerns about money laundering.
You would recall that this point about money laundering and numbers houses in The Bahamas has been raised by me on numerous occasions, as well as by others who know and understand fully how money laundering and the numbers racket are and can be tied together. How ironic it is that the country now being looked to by The Bahamas government for consultation on numbers actually refused to legalise numbers in part because of this same threat.
Since interactive online gaming and the betting on numbers that fall in a different jurisdiction is illegal in South Africa, that means it is not an industry or business in South Africa and there is no numbers regime in South Africa – therefore South Africans cannot tell The Bahamas how to regularise the numbers business; the business is not legal or regularised in South Africa.
If you are seeking advice from a country on how it has managed an industry there – the industry actually has to exist. It does not in South Africa – not legally anyway. What does exist there legally is a national lottery and casinos. But our government has already said this group will be primarily advising them on the numbers business. No mention was made of a national lottery being part of their consultation. Clearly this makes no sense.
So the question for the government is – how can South Africans give consultation to The Bahamas on the numbers business when the numbers business is illegal in South Africa?
This is also by the way, more than the appropriate time for the government to disclose who the South African group is that it will be bringing to The Bahamas. According to the media, both the Prime Minister and Minister responsible for Gaming Obie Wilchcombe did not indicate to them who these people are – which is absolute nonsense on the government’s part and should not have been accepted by the media.
Minister Wilchcombe also told the media that the nameless, faceless group came “highly recommended” – by who, when these persons cannot play numbers legally where they live?
The Minister went on to tell reporters that we, the taxpayers, have not yet paid money to this group and will do so only if after meeting with them and hearing their proposal, the government decides to engage them.
Does the government believe every Bahamian in this country is ignorant?
First of all, a group does not need to fly 7,664 miles (the direct distance from South Africa to The Bahamas) to present a “free” proposal to our government – the modern remedy for that is called email.
Secondly, the Prime Minister made it clear that he, as the head of our government, will be having these people brought in. What group of professionals hops a flight(s) halfway across the world as guests of and consultants to a government, and they do so with their own money?
In addition to the identity of this group, the government meantime should also advise the Bahamian people of what connection these people have to any of the leading numbers men in The Bahamas.
Sharon Turner
