...as a society we should not put our confidence in the legalization of gambling for Bahamians ... we should rather rely on our abilities, discipline and hard work ...and appropriate public policy to improve our circumstance

Put not your confidence in gambling

By Phillip P. Sands

The Progressive Liberal Party’s pledge to conduct a referendum on aspects of gambling is the right thing to do in light of the sustained public debate on the issue.  Political parties should refrain from politicizing this matter as occurred in the 2002 referendum.  Civil society and individuals should lead the debate.

I oppose the government endorsing gambling by Bahamians in The Bahamas not because of any religious piety on my part, but due to my increasingly strong conviction that the arguments advanced by those in support of gambling are faulty, misguided and short-sighted.

Three main arguments are advanced to support allowing Bahamians to gamble in The Bahamas namely: constitutional discrimination; unenforceable laws; and enhancement of state revenues.   However, each of these arguments is fundamentally flawed and/or lacking sufficient objective evidence to support claims made.

Constitutional discrimination

It is clear that casino gambling in The Bahamas is discriminatory, but this does not violate the constitution.  The principal purpose of the constitution is to outline the fundamental rights and responsibilities of the country’s residents.  Bahamians cannot gamble and tourists can, but tourists are unable to engage many of the constitutional rights and responsibilities (like voting and employment rights) reserved for residents.  So, the constitution is discriminatory, but this does not make it self-violating and neither under the letter or spirit of the constitution can gambling be considered a right or responsibility.  Even if this were a constitutional matter, the right action to take would be to have the tourists conform to the current standard set for Bahamians and not vice versa.

Unenforceable laws

There is little doubt that it has been virtually impossible for law enforcement agencies to “break” gambling activities among Bahamians in The Bahamas.  However, a similar fate befalls the police in their attempts to stamp out strip clubs, the drug and firearms trades and prostitution.  Therefore, does this mean that the current inability of the police to tackle these problems should lead to their acceptance?

Using the premise that difficult to enforce laws should be abandoned, why not decriminalize the marijuana trade?  It also involves a large proportion of the population and, despite the high public expenditure devoted to its eradication, many of its users are never caught.  Of those who are imprisoned, thousands of dollars are spent to warehouse them in an overcrowded prison environment which, many argue, does little to rehabilitate and more to create hardened criminals of its inmates.

Families also pay a tremendous monetary and emotional price during and after the incarceration of their sons and fathers who often struggle to re-integrate into society, including the labor market, as they are saddled with a criminal record and the stigma of having been to prison.  Because of this, ex-cons seemingly are never able to repay their debts to society – some just for smoking a marijuana cigarette.  Yet, as a society, we have decided rightly that marijuana is contraband and its use is not permitted.  So, if we hold firm on this, why should our position be any different in relation to illegal gambling?  Decisions like this should be taken on principle, not on a whim.

Finally, if it is impossible to control web shops now that gambling for Bahamians is illegal, why do some of us think that the government would be able to regulate (including collecting all taxes due) these establishments which have become skilled at circumventing and defying laws, rules and regulations?

Enhanced state revenues

According to the May 24, 2012 edition of The Tribune, a national lottery could generate $190 million.  This money, unlike that gained from casino gambling, is money already in the local economy.  Yes, there will be some multiplier effects, but not anything more than if the money were used on some other forms of recreation (e.g., going to the movies and the bowling alley).

While prime minister, Hubert Ingraham projected the government collecting $30-40 million in taxes, which would represent about two percent of government expenditure, currently at $1.8 billion per year.  But, for the sake of argument, let’s be generous and project that the government would receive 40 percent of the $190 million.  This would total $76 million, or about four percent of the current government expenditure.

With average annual household income equaling $30,318 in 2008, a significant portion of household income would have to be devoted to gambling as reflected below in the chart.

According to the Bahamas Living Conditions Survey Report, the average Bahamian household spent 12.6 percent of its income in 2001 on personal care, clothing, footwear and entertainment collectively.  So, if 70 percent of Bahamian households participated in gambling, they would need to spend two-thirds of the money that they should be spending on these items ($2,592.17) on gambling alone.

Since lotteries, like any business, advertise and try to convince and entice people to buy their product, if the government facilitates Bahamians gambling, it would become party to encouraging its citizens in irresponsible behavior.  When families make poor money management decisions and neglect their responsibilities (i.e., housing, utilities, etc.) then the government too will be partially at fault – all for a mere four percent of its income.

The nature of the game

Moreover, gambling is a zero sum game and for every winner, there must be losers.  In fact, for every winner there are many losers.  If one spends $1 and wins $600 playing the numbers, I estimate that at least another 999 people must lose (assuming they spent $1 each).  State-sponsored gambling is a tax.  We already have an unjust regressive taxation regime which disproportionately burdens the poor.  What Bahamians should really be calling on their government to do is to restructure the system of taxation where the upper middle and wealthy classes “man-up”, embrace “the Buffet Rule” and take on a greater share of the tax burden.

Yes, many Bahamians currently gamble and there is a loud call for its legalization.  However, under scrutiny the justifications offered for the legalization of gambling are fatally flawed.  It may be true that currently there is little that the state can do to stamp out the illegal gambling which takes place in the country; and even if the majority of citizens voted against it, thousands of Bahamians will continue to gamble in The Bahamas.

So, the real issue is not whether or not our laws vis-à-vis gambling are discriminatory or that the government cannot enforce its current prohibition related to Bahamians gambling, or even that the proceeds from gambling can supplement government revenue.   The real issue is whether or not the society and government, without strong justification, should endorse gambling, which is likely to create other more fundamental policy and moral dilemmas and problems.

I say as a society we should not put our confidence in the legalization of gambling for Bahamians, but rather we should rely on our abilities, discipline and hard work and appropriate public policy to improve our circumstance.

Jun 22, 2012

thenassauguardian

caribbean Blog International

The only way that we can rid ourselves of crime is to get back to basics -- discipline, good manners, hard work, respect and love for our God, our parents, ourselves, our neighbours, our community

tribune242 editorial



WHEN WE first joined The Tribune more than fifty years ago, there were no files that contained a business contract anywhere in the then small building. All transactions were the result of a gentleman's agreement sealed with a handshake. It seemed to work fairly well.

Today progress has brought written contracts, but there are times when they are not worth the paper they are written on. Recently, when we spoke with someone on behalf of a person who was having difficulty collecting payment for work he had completed, we were informed by the person who was dealing with the payment that if the matter went to court, the company would be closed and the complainant would get nothing. That's justice and honest business dealings for you, but it is also progress ... after all we do have written contracts. However, in the interim we have lost integrity, honesty, and a sense of responsibility.

We have graduated from the age when children were "seen, but not heard" to a society of vocal, often rebellious and destructive youth. They respect no one -- not even themselves-- many believing that whatever they want they can steal from a hard working neighbour. After all during the narco years, when drugs were the going currency, didn't a cabinet minister in the heat of a public gruelling, blurt out that it was nobody's business how he made his money -- whether he worked for it or t'iefed it? School essays expressed the ambition of many children that they wanted to follow the career path of their fathers, uncles or brothers as drug dealers. In those years drugs seemed to open a magic door to wealth and upward social movement. Man's lofty spirit was debased by materialism.

Need we wonder why crime is out of control. Today we are being held hostage by the products of those years.

We have problems in our schools, and we wonder why. Discipline, common courtesy and respect have all but disappeared from the schoolyard. Why, we ask? We remember a time when if a child were disciplined at school he took his punishment and made no complaint at home, because he knew that more punishment would follow for disrespecting his teacher or breaking school rules. Not so today. The precious little darlings trot home with a tale of woe and the next day a rowdy parent marches to the school to beat up the teacher. No need to wonder what's wrong with today's youth -- just look to the parents. There are no longer rules for them, discipline has gone out of the window, the child gets what he or she wants.

They looked down on honest labour. We recall a day when a mother telephoned asking us to do a story about a hotel whose manager had the effrontery to ask her daughter to scrub a dirty floor. She had called the wrong person for sympathy. The only way that we knew how to get a dirty floor clean, despite all the modern gadgets, was to get on hands and knees and give it a good scrubbing. Having done it ourselves while at school in England, we saw nothing wrong with it. No wonder in those years the government-owned hotels looked so distressingly shabby.

The late Sir Lynden Pindling lived long enough to accept that his beliefs in making life too easy for the youth was their undoing. "We are falling backward with sophistication, because we have got slack and we've got lazy and we've got sophisticated over these last 20 years and that's our fault. I accept responsibility for that," he said.

He might have accepted responsibility, but today we are suffering from those years of over indulgence when good manners, hard work, honesty, and discipline was undermined.

Sir Lynden lived long enough to understand why Haitians had to be employed to do the work that Bahamians once did. He was distressed when told by the "new" Bahamian that "Haitians supposed to do that."

"We told them that they were too good to be gardeners, too good to be sanitation men, too good to work with their hands..." Sir Lynden admitted.

"But, I didn't know then what I know now, that any work breeds character. Too many young men lack character today; too many, too often shirk responsibility because they have never been held accountable for their actions at home, in school or in society. Therein may lie the heart of the problem," he admitted.

The only way that we can rid ourselves of crime is to get back to basics -- discipline, good manners, hard work, respect and love for our God, our parents, ourselves, our neighbours, our community.

We have to dust off the Ten Commandments and teach them to our children from the cradle.

In other words our misplaced progress has led us astray. As a community we have to start all over again.

We cannot afford to wait. Now is the time.

August 09, 2011

tribune242 editorial

Caribbean Blog International