Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller last night defended web shop owners as Bahamians who have made the country proud and said they should not be degraded or compared to gangsters.
During debate on a compendium of anti-crime bills, Miller said he heard an opposition MP opine that web shop operators were organized criminals.
"The people who they refer to as... hoodlums or to use a better word, organized criminals, are well-meaning Bahamians who have made us more than proud," Miller said.
"I remember when I was in college, [FML CEO] Craig Flowers appeared on the cover of Jet magazine; that's a subsidiary of Ebony."
Miller said Flowers was the first black pilot to fly for a national airline in the Americas.
"That is the caliber of person that some would degrade and put a bad omen to his name," he said.
"I daresay that the other ones who are in that same business are generally decent, hardworking Bahamian businessmen who had the ingenuity, who had the background, who had the wherewithal to risk it all to go into a business that has been around for years.
"These good gentlemen have taken it to the next level, to another stratosphere. They have shown Bahamians that you should believe in Bahamians. That you can do what anyone else can do. I don't think we should degrade them."
Miller also admitted that he has gambler.
"I went to the barber yesterday (Tuesday) and a [man] tried to sell me numbers," he said. "I can't even buy numbers. I spent $20, and I didn't catch anything."
Miller also said web shop owners contribute to local charities.
On January 28, a majority of people who voted in a referendum on gambling voted against the establishment of a national lottery, and the regularization and taxation of web shops.
A day later, Prime Minister Perry Christie ordered all web shop operators to shut down their gaming operations immediately or face arrest and prosecution.
The matter then went before the Supreme Court and a legal battle is underway.
Miller did not comment on the case, but said web shops in the country employ thousands of Bahamians.

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