Dear Editor,
Please help me with this. Where do Bahamians get $400 million to gamble with in the web shops? Is this money coming from tourism? Or foreign investors? Or is this money already in the country?
If it is already here then government has already got its cut.
Another thing is I don't understand if the web shops are operating with machines why do they need to hire thousands of people when most people can gamble from their homes, their cars, their churches and work? If Bahamian people are spending that much on gambling when this becomes legal more people will gamble than are doing so now because they respect the law. Don't get me wrong on this, I think that if Bahamians want to gamble that badly then government should find a legal way for them to do so. But I don't think putting a web shop on every corner is the way to go.
The only government in the world that would legalize gambling to its poor people who depend 80 percent on outside investments would be a black government. No other race of people would think this way. Even my sometimes favorite country, the great U.S.A., until recently hid gambling in a dessert away from her citizens who may be tempted to waste their hard-earned money foolishly. Leave it to a soul brother and he will put a shop on every corner and keep his own people poor so they can come to him and beg him for something to eat, to turn on their electricity and give them "one government job". Now you tell me who loves you.
Brooks said "fools rush in, where wise men never, never go". Please call the doctor, these people are sick. My opinion, yes make gambling legal. I think Bahamians have a right to this entertainment as others are enjoying it in this country. Make it so he can own a casino, but he would have to qualify just like everyone else; whatever those qualifications are. He should have all the perks and all the advantages as the foreign investors enjoy. Being Bahamian doesn't get you anything more than any other Bahamian.
Remember now that only one group of people has concessions for gambling in this part of the world. If Bahamians have special privileges that go with their licenses the foreign investors will not be happy. Legal or illegal gambling will attract foreign undesirables if not controlled by them.
So, 'Mr. Government', be careful where you put your foot. These boys know you long time. They think you are just a bunch of hicks who will do anything for money. Don't forget how Motown Records got out of black folks' hands or who made the big bucks off "Funky Nassau", "Who let the dogs out", BTC and soon to be BEC.
Please Bahamians, make your government stop the madness before we become like Jamaica or Haiti. They didn't think it could happen either. They also refused to pay the piper and went hog wild with other people's money thinking nobody can make them pay "'cause this is we country". They also got in with questionable people and replaced their worldwide accepted white Jamaican prime minister with a radical black racist government, whose first big mistake in their present downfall was to turn down a breakfast invitation from the former U.S. president. Everything was downhill from there.
Our downhill started when we threw an important world-class banker in a bus filled with sweaty workers and then in a detention center not fit for human occupation; and most Bahamian didn't see anything wrong with that. We are going to be the ones to suffer, as these people have enough money to live on the golf course on Paradise Island for the rest of their lives while we are sloshing around with outside toilets over the hill when it rains.
- Bob Nevil

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian