Following a report that Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham would make a definitive statement on the controversial gambling issue later in the week, on whether to legalize gambling for Bahamians since the laws against it cannot be enforced, Tourism Minister Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, said that the committee for Gaming Reform, appointed last year to examine the country's gaming laws has made "great headway" in exploring the best possible approach for the development and expansion of the local gaming industry, adding: “It is a question of which of those recommendations we advance to legislation, and which ones we do not."

Last April, Vanderpool-Wallace said that the committee was leaning toward recommending that legal residents be allowed to gamble in The Bahamas, but there was no clear indication on this matter during last week’s press conference, although he did say that recommendations “would not be made until we get to the stage of having a very clear sense of what is likely to be supported or not, and that would be reflected in the legislation."

The Minister also said: "That is really what is being recommended by the group of people who will put the proposal forward, but we have to look at them in a broader context in terms of if there are any implications for any other changes that would have to be made if we enable that. It is really the consequential effects that we are examining now so that we don't just look at it from a touristy point of view, and a resident as opposed to a citizen point of view, (may) look at it more broadly. So that is really the stage we have to go through after we have gotten to that point."

Ingraham, who has recognized that legalizing gambling for Bahamians could generate substantial revenues for the government, met last week with the Bahamas Christian Council, which is opposed to the proposed changes, to discuss the issue last month.

The Bahamas Gaming Reform, headed by Sidney Strachan, has long argued that Bahamians should be afforded the same rights to participate in the gaming industry in The Bahamas as their foreign counterparts. This group has estimated that a national gaming network would gross between US $60 and US $100 million in revenues annually, create more than a 1,000 jobs for Bahamians and bolster the government's treasury by as much as US $30 million a year.

Among the recommendations made to the Government by the BHA were that a wider variety of people in the Bahamas be allowed to gamble, that different types of games be permitted and that regulations that slow the pace of business in Bahamian casinos be adjusted. Last year Opposition Leader Perry Christie said the time had come for the country to review its gaming laws. (E-05.25.10)

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