The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Many wonder what will it take for Bahamians to see through this “smoke screen” exercise of deception by those advocating the “yes” vote in Monday’s Referendum? I forward the following comments in reply to the arguments made by the group.

1) Re-employment of individuals currently engaged in the industry. Yet no one knows for certain how many persons are engaged in these web shops who are in jeopardy of losing their jobs.

Is it three, thirty, three hundred per shop or any other number?

The PM confirmed to those reporters outside the Churchill Building recently that he did not know. The Ministry of Finance made some rough estimates some time ago for estimating monies made by the web shops, for their own calculations and not for any other purpose.

Having made some guesstimates, the next questions concern whether these persons are only temporarily employed or permanently employed. Since their main jobs are the selling of numbers, it is also fair to assume that the workers are working on temporary terms.

Most of those who sold numbers for a recent shop in the East which closed down were independent agents.

2) Issue of shares in the Web shops merger.

This is very unusual and unbelievable. The issue of shares in a reputable company to Bahamians as forecast by the previous administration was refused by the current administration. We were not advised of the reasons.

So why should Bahamians invest in a proposed company about which we have no information as to the background of the main shareholders? They are shadowy figures who let others speak for them. Further, we have not seen financial statements for these companies.

Also we must not forget that a large gambling operation recently closed its doors.

3) Who are the current operators of these gaming operations and why don’t they make their own case to Bahamians? The proposed shares offer seems suspect and it appears that others are interested in expanding the existing operations as partners, not shareholders.

4) Winners and Losers
When people lose, where do they go to supplement their income? It is likely that there will be an escalation in crime.

5) Sale of illegal drugs and other vices – It could be argued that there is money to be made by persons in these businesses, although no one is advocating this.

6) There are too many inconsistencies by spokespersons. First, the government said they were not involved, then another person said differently. It is not known what “employees” are being paid – whether at the minimum wage level or whether on a commission basis. If this basic information is not known, how can they estimate the number of persons engaged and the total compensation for employees in the industry with any degree of accuracy?

That is why the whole exercise seems to be a “smoke screen” poll.

BAHAMIAN VOTER

Nassau,

January 22, 2013.