In all of this running on by some in government about “fairness for Bahamians in gaming”, the country must not forget that this government planned to deal very dirty with the numbers business if the Bahamian people had voted “yes” in January’s shambolic Gaming Poll.
The government already planned behind closed doors to only give licences to 2-3 numbers bosses and lock out the others, with proposed legislative parameters that would have in effect excluded almost all Bahamians except the few “chosen ones” from being able to get into the business. In other words, the deck was already going to be stacked for certain Bahamians over others. What is “fair” for Bahamians about that?
The politicians to whom this post applies need to cut the crap. There was never any plan by this administration to put all Bahamians first on the matter of gaming, even if the laws were amended to allow webshop gambling to be legalized. If you are going to legalize a sector, the playing field has to be level from the start, not a crap-shoot where the bet is already fixed and only certain houses are already set to exclusively win.
Certain politicians aren’t about all Bahamians, they are about certain Bahamians. They are trying to convolute the issue of the current Gaming Bill before Parliament when that Bill has nothing to do with the issue of legalising gambling for Bahamians. The issue of changing the law for Bahamians would be a separate legislative agenda item and they know it, but they are counting on most Bahamians not to be able to realize that.
Sharon Turner
www.thereal242.com
