'No' vote would hit workers

As of Wednesday, November 7, 2012

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

A MAJORITY ‘no’ vote on referendum day would not only largely affect the thousands of persons employed in the “numbers industry” but cause an overall loss of revenue for corporations, said a web shop chief yesterday.

Deyvon Jones CEO of Whatfall.com insisted that much is to be gained from the legalisation of web shops despite strong opposition from the religious community which has largely played up “the moral compass” argument.

The Whatfall.com chain employs 170 person with 32 stores throughout the country.

Mr Jones said: “The only thing that would happen is those people who work for them (corporations) would be out of a job and those places who rent, they can’t pay their mortgage. Those air condition people who supply those stores, they don’t have their gig. Cable Bahamas they lose revenue, BTC they lose revenue. All these things is what would spin off of these 3,000 people who would show up to NIB for unemployment money. NIB is now getting less revenue because you take these 3,000 jobs away where money was being pumped in.

“If we look at everything morally then there would be a lot of things that change in this country. We won’t drink. We won’t smoke. We won’t do all these other types of things that people like to do.”

While those in favour of the web shop legalisation have questioned why the government has opted not to include a national lottery in the referendum, Mr Jones said he shares the same sentiment.

“I am not in favour of a national lottery simply because we don’t have the population to sustain it, it’s as simple as that. People have the misunderstanding that our success comes from lottery and it doesn’t. A national lottery is more expensive to run.”

The growth of web shops throughout the country has also generated attention internationally, Mr Jones said.

“There are so many in our region who want to do what we do. They call us everyday, but they don’t know how to do it and we’ve done it and we’ve done it successfully. So the opportunity here is for our people to embrace this just as we embraced the prohibition of liquor and the prohibition of smoking. This is the way that the world is going and it’s going to creating jobs,” Mr Jones said.

Referendum voting is expected to take place on December 3.

JohnDoes 12 years, 1 month ago

The thing that Perry forgot is that, they cannot regulate what these businesses are doing if they are all using Casino Scripts on their websites which in other words gives them (Webshop Owners) exclusive rights to the services they are providing. The Gaming Board will not have control on their businesses as it regards to the service that they are providing through the extensive, expensive, Casino scripts provided by many gaming software businesses that allow you to purchase their product, start a website and use their scripts and source codes to incorporate it (casino, poker, sportsbook etc) within the websites. The reputable web shops already made so much money that if the referendum passes or not, it will still not entirely affect them. Most of them are operating their servers on foreign soil, such as Florida where the Bahamian government has no jurisdiction to even attempt to confiscate, analyze or control the operation of the site. The 'loop hole' in the entire thing is that, these businesses are legally claiming to be webshops, providing internet services, that allow access to these Number websites, and it is the responsibility of the client/customer to enter that web shop, use their 'internet provided service' and actually access the website to indulge in these gaming/gambling practices in which the CEO's tend to specifically run their business. The business is not so much in the 'webshop' where they are making an income by providing internet service, but actually within the private website which in turn creates the loop hole. Technology is very advanced now days, and Bahamians do not really want to go in hotels to pull the slot machines when they can do the same thing at better pay out rates and more visual and user friendly variety through these websites with one click of a mouse. As for the actual numbers, anyone can throw pieces of paper in a hat with numbers, pick them and call them off. The reason they are using foreign number drops (ex. Illionois lottery, Florida lottery) is because in America these lotteries have a reputation. People like reputation, and it makes your website look and feel more legitimate when in turn, those business have no idea that these websites are making use of their number drops, logos, copyrighted elements etc. That is also why a national lottery will not work, because pay outs are determined based on the Webshop/Website's income...

JohnDoes 12 years, 1 month ago

Cont'd... If everyone enters your premises at any hour of the day to pick 3 to 4 numbers for .25cents or more, the chance of one or more particular persons picking the right numbers when they acutally fall, is very low and therefore a payout will turn into a source of income until someone picks the right numbers, and they change everyday, and if it aint much in the businesses savings to pay out, they will pay in installments, and if it is too much to pay out, then the business shuts down ultimately. But if you are a number shop and have been running for years, your odds of shutting down because of a massive pay out is very slim because money is always coming in. This business is a black market, very hard to control.

conian 12 years, 1 month ago

This is what we call the renaming of Piracy to Buccaneerism ? State accepted Crime? What will be next on the Agenda to Legalize? Incredible events in this the 21st Century. Some action needs to be taken. Guilt has been admitted. The simple solution is to NOT issue any renewals.

For the workers :"Go find Work that is not in conflict with the Law.