The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

A good friend of mine who works for a multi-billion dollar oil company told me that he gambles every day.

He and his common-law wife have earned thousands of dollars throughout the years by playing Cash 3 and Play 4.

Judging from his overly-excessive talk of gambling every time I see him, I think it is safe to say that my friend, who is either 35 or 36, is a chronic gambler. Many of his co-workers are also chronic gamblers. They are always talking about what fell in Florida, Chicago or in some other state.

Needless to say, gambling is endemic at my friend’s workplace. Recently, he told me that his live-in girlfriend won about $2,000. And some weeks before that, he told me that one of his co-workers had won $27,000.

My friend and his co-workers don’t need to gamble in order to make ends meet, unlike so many Bahamians. They are among the highest paid blue-collar workers in the country.

In fact, my friend is earning between $3,500 to $4,000 a month. Several of his co-workers are earning close to six figures per annum.

Their Christmas bonus mirrors their monthly salary. They also receive other impressive financial perks. He has his own house and car. As well, his live-in girlfriend is employed. Their gambling is strictly recreational.

And so you can understand my shock after my gambling friend told me that he and his co-workers will all be voting no to the legalisation of web shops on January 28.

When pressed for a reason for his decision, he told me that as the system presently stands, he can earn $900 on a dollar if he wins Cash 3 or as much as $6,000 if he wins Cash 4. He said that if web shop gambling is legalised, cash prizes will see a significant decrease.

For instance, if he were to wage a dollar on a Cash 3 number under a legalised system and wins, instead of earning $900, he will only get $600 or $700 instead.

As well, he told me that instead of earning $6,000 on a successful Cash 4 number, he will only get $4,000 or $3,000.

Now, I do not know where he got his information from, but he seemed as if he knew what he was talking about. He should. After all, he gambles every day.

This referendum issue appears to be a hot button subject in the web shops. Still, he could be wrong.

Either way, he is convinced that he and all gamblers will get the short end of the stick under a regularised system.

My friend told me that the government will only be cutting into his earnings. He and his co-workers don’t see the advantage of having a legalised gambling system.

To them, such a system would only hurt their bottom line and not the numbers bosses. My friend told me that many other gamblers who he personally knows are equally opposed to the referendum, and prefer the system to remain as it presently is.

To be sure, he and his co-workers are not alone in their opposition to the planned referendum.

Many chronic gamblers such as my friend are well aware of numbers bosses having to pay a cash bond of $1 million a year and coughing up approximately 15 per cent in gross sums wagered, under a regularised system.

The question is who will bear the brunt of these new taxes if the referendum passes. My friend believes that it will be the gamblers, not the numbers bosses.

Judging from the tenor of my gambling buddy, he was not at all impressed with Prime Minister Perry Christie’s reasons as to why web shop gambling should be legalised. Despite claims that under a regularised system, the government would earn anywhere from $15 million to $20 million per year, some gamblers are deeply offended that it is their monies that the government would be raking in. So much for Bahamian nationalism.

Looks like the Progressive Liberal Party government will be facing a two-pronged attack from the Bahamas Christian Council and, of all persons, chronic gamblers such as my friend and his co-workers.

And just when I was beginning to think that the nearly 100,000 Bahamians who gamble were all going to vote “yes” on January 28.

Judging from my gambling friend’s attitude towards this referendum, that will not be the case.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama,

November 26, 2012.