The Tribune

PRIME MINISTER Perry Christie seems confused about the operation of web shops. So are we.

Can you imagine the number of Bahamians — except, of course, web shop operators —who are even more confused than we are.

When first there was talk of a referendum, it was understood that Bahamians would be asked to vote on whether or not they agreed with gambling for the Bahamas — any form of gambling. As discussions continued over time it was understood that the question would be whether Bahamians wanted a national lottery. And so until his recent announcement in the House setting the December 3 date for the referendum everyone was debating a national lottery. However, with the announcement of the date was the statement that a national lottery was out of the question. According to Mr Christie, his London-based consultants had told him that a national lottery in such a small country was not “commercially viable at this time.” However, what was overlooked was that other small Caribbean islands have successful national lotteries. What the advisors possibly said was that a national lottery and web shops could not co-exist – one would bleed too much from the other. Did Mr Christie have to make the hard decision as to which had to be eliminated, rather than leaving that decision to the voters?

Mr Christie promised that Bahamians would be fully educated on lotteries before they would be asked to vote. However, having been led to believe that Mr Christie had a report by experts as to why a national lottery would not work here, but web shops would, Bahamians naturally expected to see the report. This assumption proved an embarrassment for Mr Christie — there was no report, only a few letters over a period of time.

Asked if he would release the few sheets of paper giving him that advice, his curt reply was: “No, why would I want to do that?” Well why wouldn’t he want to do that if this was the only bit of information that he had on which he was making a decision on behalf of the Bahamian people, especially after informing them that it was their decision to make— not his.

Mr Christie has now decided to fly the experts to Nassau, obviously to inform the voters. He also said that a “major announcement” is to be expected soon on the referendum and web shop gambling.

As a result of the confusion and lack of the promised information, the FNM has asked that the referendum be delayed to give people time to learn more before having to make up their minds. Mr Christie should recall when his party was in opposition how — after voting in the House on the referendum for women — he went outside and encouraged the people to vote against it because, he said, it was unclear. This time the political shoe is on the other political foot.

One point that has to be clarified is whether a national lottery or web shops are better for the Public Treasury. According to Mr Christie government will collect about $20 million in tax revenue from the web shops. However, former minister of state for finance in the Ingraham government, said that according to his government’s estimates the tax revenue expected should be in the region of $40 million.

“Quite frankly,” said Mr Laing, “I think that this is why the issue needs to be aired out more so that we make a sensible decision in the end.”

Recently when asked by the press during the Abaco by-election whether any money had been accepted by either party from the illegal numbers houses, Mr Ingraham said the FNM party had accepted no donations, however, he did not know if individual FNM members had. Asked the same question, Mr Christie said he did not know if his party had received any of this illegal money.

At the time we were told by a very reliable source that the numbers people offered donations to both parties for the Abaco by-election. The FNM refused to accept anything, he said. He went on to say more, but we shall leave it there.

During the campaign we received a call from Abaco. The caller wanted to know if Mr Craig Flowers, owner of FML Web Shop, whose shop had been raided by the police last year and almost a million dollars confiscated, had been made “an ambassador or something.”

The caller said that on Mr Flower’s arrival at Abaco on the Saturday before the election, he was treated as a celebrity — met at the airport on arrival by a police Inspector and driven off in a police car. On his departure he was also escorted by a police Inspector. Of course, we could not confirm this, but we told the caller that as far as we knew Mr Flowers had had no special government appointment.

However, because Mr Christie earned the reputation, during his first term in office, for being indecisive, he is now determined to go ahead with the December 3 date regardless — if only to prove that he can make up his mind and move forward.

However, for the sake of the country it would be advisable to take more time to give Bahamians an opportunity to grasp the issues.