Web shops are wreaking havoc on family island communities, former Gaming Board Chairman Dr. Andre Rollins charged yesterday.
While admitting that he voted in favor of regularizing and taxing web shops during the January 2013 gaming referendum, the Fort Charlotte MP said he has since had second thoughts on the issue.
"I'm concerned that they are wreaking havoc, particularly in our family island communities, that they are sucking all of the monies out of those communities and basically sucking them dry," said Rollins who was a guest on ZNS 104.5 FM radio show "Darold Miller Live" with host Darold Miller.
"The monies are being taken out and being reinvested elsewhere to the detriment of those communities even here in New Providence. The number of web shops, in my view, is having a negative impact on the society. There is no control, no regulation."
When the Gaming Bill was put to a vote in the House of Assembly last year, Rollins voted against it. He criticized the Christie administration over the discriminatory elements in the bill and charged that the government's hypocrisy on the issue will be "enough to cause it to be fired at the next general election". He was referring to the provision that prohibits Bahamians from gambling in casinos.
Rollins said yesterday that the web shop industry is still not properly regulated.
"As I said then, it either needed to be regulated and made lawful... and Bahamians could participate in all aspects of it or none would be in existence and there would be no need to regulate what was not in existence," he said. "I don't waiver from what was said."
Rollins' comments came nearly two weeks after Anglican Diocesan Bishop Laish Boyd made similar statements regarding the impact the web shops are having on the economy. Boyd said while the web shop industry represents a relatively small sector of the economy, it has and will continue to "extract money from the economy of the islands, communities and cities" that they can't afford to lose.
Boyd also said he observed a proliferation of web shops in New Providence, but particularly on the Family Islands, and while "persons patronize these establishments by choice, their choice drains small family island communities."
Last month, eight web shop operators were awarded conditional gaming house operator licenses. Boyd said the government must have a conversation and present its plan to offset the social and moral side effects that will follow from the industry.
"Friends, whatever you say about the gaming industry, its actual effect on the society is that it gouges out a chunk of flesh from the torso of this nation and creates a syndrome of ill-effects that will call for a lot of repair and healing," Boyd said.
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