Another former senior FNM favours legalised gambling

By ALISON LOWE
Tribune Staff Reporter
alowe@tribunemedia.net:


ANOTHER former senior FNM has come out in favour of the legalisation of gambling, amid speculation that the Government may be preparing to liberalise gaming laws in the Bahamas in the coming legislative session.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Frank Watson, who was recently honoured by the government when the new road bordering the Albany resort was named after him, said police are "wasting their time and resources running after" those who conduct and participate in lotteries in the Bahamas and it is "time for us to face the music."

"We waste the police's precious time trying to lock up and seemingly never to get a conviction so why not legalise it? We need to get it behind us. If I don't want to gamble I don't have to gamble no one is forcing you (if it is legalised)."

"The reality is there is a block of churches that oppose gaming being legalised, but the police can do nothing about it as it goes on illegally.

"Police continue to waste time running behind numbers people and all they're doing is taking the focus off crime in my view," said the former parliamentarian and current chairman of the Nassau Airport Development Company.

His comments come as speculation remains high that the Government, which has been urged by numerous stakeholders to reform gaming laws in the Bahamas, may announce in the Speech from the Throne, which will outline the Government's next legislative agenda upon the opening of the new session of Parliament on April 14, that it intends to liberalise gambling laws in The Bahamas.

Such speculation has been bolstered by reports that the question of whether gambling laws should be reformed was recently put to the FNM Council for a vote by party leader and Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.

Speaking with The Tribune, Mr Watson said he was not sure if this did indeed happen but "understands that this may have been so."

Meanwhile, when asked yesterday if the council did vote on the issue of liberalisation, FNM party chairman Carl Bethel admitted that gambling law reform is indeed "a question that's being discussed internally in the Free National Movement."

However, Bahamas Hotel Association President Robert Sands, who was part of the group that presented a proposal to the Government last year calling for a reform of the Bahamas' gaming laws -- in his group's case, the proposal specifically related to who can gamble in casinos in The Bahamas and what kinds of games are permitted in those tourist establishments, rather than the legalisation of numbers houses -- told Tribune Business last week that he had not heard anything officially on the matter. FML CEO Craig Flowers said the same.

Mr Watson told The Tribune he feels that other than those churches who oppose gambling on religious grounds, most Bahamians are either "ambivalent about or participate in" illegal gambling.

He added that if it were legalised, expanded gambling could be a major revenue-raising measure for the Government.

"The money raised could be used to implement programmes dealing with anti-social behaviour or to put on after school classes or day care. Parents are having difficulty managing their jobs and their children," he suggested.

Nonetheless, the ex-parliamentarian admitted the move would be one that a government would have to "think through carefully and be prepared to take the consequences" of.

Former FNM Cabinet Minister Theresa Moxey came under fire several weeks ago after she described police raids on numbers houses as equivalent to officers "terrorising peaceful citizens." She suggested the law that allows non-Bahamians and non-Bahamian residents to gamble while denying those categories of people the same right is "discriminatory."

A Group of Evangelical Pastors -- Cedric Moss, Allan Lee, Lyall Bethel and Alfred Stuart -- called Mrs Moxey-Ingraham's comments "irresponsible" and urged the Government to strengthen anti-gambling laws and their enforcement to "rid our land of these illegal numbers houses."

April 06, 2010