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Legalized Gambling Issue In Bahamas Draw Varied Opinions From Citizens

Posted on April 16th, 2010

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Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said yesterday that his government is considering legalizing gambling in the island and that Opposition Leader Perry Christie and Bain and Grants Town Member of Parliament Dr. Bernard Nottage have been notified of his plan as well as some groups like the Free National Movement’s Central Council and members of his parliament. In view of this recent development, the Nassau Guardian went to the streets yesterday and asked the inhabitants how they feel about gambling.

Lynn Barr, a 47-year old street vendor said, “The Bible speaks against gambling and I don’t think we should do it. We call our nation a Christian nation, so we [have] to live up to that standard.”For straw market vendor Larry Austin, gambling is “not a good thing. Gambling keeps you in poverty, anybody who gambles ends up in poverty because you lose. You can never win once you gamble. Gambling is not a good thing because it is addictive.” Another straw market vendor Margaret Curry who likened gambling to a person with an addiction to alcohol, said, “I think gambling should not be legalized. It’s a bad habit. You get poor, broke, desperate and your children eat nothing. Gambling is a disease, a demonic curse.”

Sir Arlington Butler, immediate past president of the Bahamas Olympic Association said that gambling should have been legalized a long time ago. “When you measure all of the arguments against it and those for it, I believe there is a definite possibility that it should be allowed for the benefit of the Bahamian people,” he said. “The unfortunate point is that we encourage it to be illegal. We encourage corruption. We encourage the development of an individual or individuals and not the development of the society. I don’t know if any major things went wrong in Florida, because they had [a] lottery,” Butler said.

He disclosed that several years ago he applied for the legalization of a lottery in behalf of the Olympic Association “for the purpose of helping sports and other social things.” He said that after the Olympic Association raffled a house for $5 a ticket in 1972, the organization has never been penniless. Nadia Bethel, a jewelry store clerk said, “I believe gambling should be legalized if the country is going to allow casinos to be here on the island. If we say we’re a Christian nation and we don’t want our Bahamians gambling then therefore we should not let any human beings gamble.”

Symphony Sands, a beauty consultant opined, “Honestly whether gambling is legal or illegal it doesn’t matter because everyone is doing it anyway. You see police officers talking about numbers, what fall today, what [didn't] fall today, so they might as well make it legal so no one goes to jail for it [because] they’re doing it anyway.”