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Monday, April 20, 2009
MONTEGO BAY, St James - <span style="font-weight: bold">A 90-year-old policy excluding Bahamian locals from participating in casino gambling in that country</span>
is coming under increasing pressure from academics there who say there is nothing to justify it."The industry supports consideration of this issue by government as it believes that some Bahamian residents, including second homeowners who have a proven net worth should be given a chance to play as part of an effort to shore up casino profits," said Dr T Jennifer Edwards, a lecturer at the University of the West Indies' Centre for Hotel and Tourism Management in Nassau, Bahamas.
Edwards' comments were made during a presentation detailing the history and successful economic experiences of the Bahamas since the 1920's when it legalised casino gambling, on Saturday at a policy conference to examine the impact of gaming on the society.
The conference, which was staged by the University of the West Indies at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Rosehall, St James, was attended by some 35 representatives from the Caribbean region and North America.
According to Edwards, a commission on enquiry into casino gambling in the Bahamas <span style="font-style: italic">in 1976 noted that there was no compelling reason for excluding adult Bahamians or other residents in the Bahamas from participating in the country's casino gambling activities </span><span style="font-weight: bold">which are reserved by law for tourists.</span>
The enquiry, Edwards said, recommended that the restrictions be removed, however, the government of that day declined.
"This recommendation may resurface again with the current competitive climate faced by the industry," she said.
In fact, <span style="font-weight: bold">according to Edwards, a non-Bahamian from that country's Lydford Cay community approached the court for permission to be allowed to gamble on the basis that as a permanent resident, he should not be classified as a resident of Bahamas and by extension be barred from gambling</span>.
<span style="font-style: italic">Jamaica's Government has proposed to introduce casino gambling as part of its tourism product</span> through a proposed investment of US$6.8 billion <span style="font-style: italic">at the Harmony Cove and Celebration Jamaica resorts.</span>
Unlike the Bahamas however, the Government <span style="font-style: italic">is not, according to tourism minister Ed Bartlett,</span>
planning to use legislation to ban Jamaican locals from participating.What will happen, <span style="font-weight: bold">said Bartlett </span>at Saturday's conference, is that <span style="font-weight: bold">other more subtle means such as strategical pricing, will be used to keep the locals out.</span>
"The Government is contemplating a strictly circumscribed gaming industry. It will be offered within the confines of tourism, it will not be available to any and every resort...there will be a strict limit to the number of facilities that will be allowed to operate," he told the conference.
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