By KYLE WALKINE
Tribune Staff Reporter
kwalkine@tribunemedia.net
THE OWNER of a newly formed webshop operation said yesterday that the government’s proposed plans to impose a hefty licensing fee and performance bond on the sector is “unfair” to smaller businesses and in the best interests of the “big number bosses”.
The operator of the web shop Let’s Play, who did not want to be named, told The Tribune that if the government goes ahead with its initial idea of establishing a $1m licensing fee as well as a steep performance bond, then it would force the newer webshops to either shut down or join up with the bigger companies.
Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Perry Christie affirmed his administration’s intent to regulate the webshop industry, despite an overwhelming “no” vote at the polls in the January 28, 2013 gaming referendum. Mr Christie said webshop taxes will be retroactive to July 1.
In 2012, Mr Christie said that webshops could face up to $1m in licensing fees, along with a performance bond, if regulated. However, the webshop owner has fears this will force smaller companies out of the market.
“We might have to end up merging with the bigger companies because we don’t have that much capital as yet to put (up) a $1m bond,” the webshop owner said, when asked if his company will be able to meet this criteria.
“The government is just basically siding with the bigger boys who have been in this game for years. It may be a one-sided thing whereas the government is giving them what they want and that is as little competition as possible.
“It wouldn’t be fair. I admit the market is saturated. But what the government plans on doing isn’t fair to the small man. Like they said in their campaign speeches they ‘Believe in Bahamians.’ I’m a Bahamian. I found a business venture that I want to capitalise on and I jumped on it. They’re basically telling the average Bahamian man under the age of 30 that you can’t get involved in this business because it’s only for a selected few. That, I think is not fair.”
Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe, who has responsibility for gaming, recently told The Tribune that the government is considering taxing web shops at a rate of 15 per cent.
The web shop owner said he and the other smaller operators from franchises such as Island Win, Players and 8 Bahamas will more than likely have to form a lobbying group and present a document of recommendations to the government.
“I will have to speak with them to see how low they feel this licensing fee should be,” he said.
“Instead of the $1m licensing fee, I prefer them to do an audit and see if our system is compatible with that of the bigger companies. These guys have been around for many years. The government should be able to give us an option. I think they should do an analysis of all web shop companies and see what fee is most workable for all of us.
“They should handle it based on qualities sales of each business. They shouldn’t base it on what they are gathering from businesses over the past five years. They should look at it from a yearly basis, on how sales are and then charge a standard licensing fee.”
According to the Let’s Play owner, that percentage is not likely to affect customers’ winnings.
He said, “Chances are, it will only cut into the amount of money number bosses take home. But I can work with that 15 per cent tax.”
According to Mr Christie, the government expects the taxing of web shops to bring in revenue of 0.14 per cent of GDP for the next fiscal year and onward.
The owner of Let’s Play applauded the government for taking steps to regulate the underground sector.
“It helps to inject money into the economy. Once that is regulated our employees can go to the bank for loans. More kids are able to get scholarships. It helps banks give back to the community. It helps us give back. Take for example charities. A lot of them don’t take money from web shops because they say it is illegal.
“But if the industry is regulated it leaves no question as to the legality of our business and in effect our money.”
Let’s Play has officially been open for two weeks and has two locations, on Carmichael Road and Market Street. By the end of the month the owner said Let’s Play should have two more locations in New Providence, one in Abaco and another in Grand Bahama.
The company has planned a celebration at their Market Street location on June 28.
AG Consulting has been engaged by the government to give advice on how to properly regulate the web shop industry.
Comments
Tarzan 10 years, 5 months ago
But if you impose a licensing tax on drug dealers it is unfair to the small drug dealers who are just starting out.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 5 months ago
Agreed. This man is operating an illegal operation, the foundation for his position is not solid.
TalRussell 10 years, 5 months ago
This moving forward with the numbers rackets by the government is more about a government stretching the "revolt" patience of their citizens like no other administration have so blatantly done in the long history of Bahamaland. We have Numbers Houses operating near Schools and Churches, in some cases directly next to or opposite of. Here we have a government only days away from regularizing - cause as far as the Numbers Houses been acting, they done since 2012 been "backdoor legalized" by PM Christie and his group of "ignore the votes of the people acting with a thug's mentality" government. Yes, you'd have have to possess a thug's mentality to do what they're doing to Bahamalanders. PM how can you legalize people who if you win big-time monies, are paying out your winnings in installments, some in the numbers rackets have to be chased to collect your winnings? We know for a fact that is is but an illusion that the money wagered will stay in Bahamaland. That is but one of the many bold-faced lies this government likes to repeat to justify why they are doing what they must know is so damn wrong. PM you and your colleagues will pay a peoples rejection price and it might come before 2017.
Well_mudda_take_sic 10 years, 5 months ago
According to Wikipedia and many medical sources, pathological gambling is an impulse control disorder whereby the afflicted individual typically exhibits at least five of the following symptoms: 1. Preoccupation. The subject has frequent thoughts about gambling experiences, whether past, future, or fantasy. 2. Tolerance. As with drug tolerance, the subject requires larger or more frequent wagers to experience the same "rush". 3. Withdrawal. Restlessness or irritability associated with attempts to cease or reduce gambling. 4. Escape. The subject gambles to improve mood or escape problems. 5. Chasing. The subject tries to win back gambling losses with more gambling. 6. Lying. The subject tries to hide the extent of his or her gambling by lying to family, friends, or therapists. 7. Loss of control. The person has unsuccessfully attempted to reduce gambling. 8. Illegal acts. The person has broken the law in order to obtain gambling money or recover gambling losses. This may include acts of theft, embezzlement, fraud, or forgery. 9. Risked significant relationship. The person gambles despite risking or losing a relationship, job, or other significant opportunity. 10. Bailout. The person turns to family, friends, or another third party for
financial assistance as a result of gambling.
Because of many years of failed policies of both the PLP and FNM governments, many Bahamians (and I suspect many of our corrupt politicians as well) exhibit more than five of the above traits. ONLY OUR PM AND HIS CORRUPT GREEDY CRONIES COULD NOW WISH TO EXACERBATE AND ALREADY ACUTE SITUATION IN OUR SOCIETY BY SEEKING TO LEGALIZED WEB SHOPS. Many a small child and elderly parent are going to be grievously harmed by Perry Gladstone Christie's unwillingness to heed the voice of the people as spoken in the referendum that he himself instigated. I suppose Mr. Christie would have us believe that if he won the majority of votes in a general election, where less than 50% of the registered voters turned out to vote, he would hold the view the people had not spoken and therefore decline to serve as PM. What hog wash! Mr. Christie you are now so arrogant and out of control of your senses that it is impossible for you to care about anyone other than your cronies who you perceive to serve your own self-gain, e.g. the Ishmael Lightbournes of the Bahamas. Your position on the web shops clearly signals you give two hoots about what voters have to say in our democracy. You are void of any caring whatsoever for the Bahamian people and this comes across in all of your wordiness whenever you open your trap and exacerbate global warming with the hot air you constantly espouse.
sheeprunner12 10 years, 5 months ago
In any business venture......... there is a built-in advantage to those with deep resources. What do these "web-shop entrepreneurs" want now................. government handouts????
FYI................. these so-called "entrepreneurs" are still legal law-breakers and criminals
B_I_D___ 10 years, 5 months ago
Yeah buddy!! Just digging that whole a bit deeper, and sweetening the pot for the main financers of the PLP campaign. Let's take a vote to legalize and regulate...vote no...screw it, we are going to do it anyways...so now that we have all agreed we are going to regulate and tax the web shops, let's make some REALLY crazy laws to where you already have to be one of the big players to even consider qualifying for a license to legalize your now illegal operations...BRILLIANT!! I am sure that the powers that be...Flowers et al are just laughing all the way to the bank...they can meet the requirements easily, and then push to wipe out all the illegal guys who can't reach that high yet. Pure genius!! This government got it going from all angles!!
B_I_D___ 10 years, 5 months ago
I'm willing to bet that the big guys will be the first ones crying foul and calling for police to shut down the little guys who can't fork out the $$...watch for it!!
B_I_D___ 10 years, 5 months ago
"I admit the market is saturated." Isn't one of the general laws of starting out on a new business venture to NOT target something that has effectively reached max saturation? Go after a business where there is a need for growth and capture that opportunity...don't go into something that is 'saturated'...to use his own words.
TalRussell 10 years, 5 months ago
PM how in hell can you and your cabinet colleagues think you can pull-off legalizing people who have over many years been dodging paying business taxes, when every other business owner would have been arrested, charged and possibly jailed, if they had tried pulling not paying a red penny on hundreds of millions of dollars....pulling off that trick against the Peoples Public Treasury? You and your colleagues are reopening one large-ass barrel full of political going mess-up worms, which will destroy the PLP...forever. PM some things Bahamalanders will never accept is a PLP apology for, doing something something so damn wrong. And, you do it so blatantly openly.
Purcell 10 years, 5 months ago
I am a former developer of one of these web shops. I sold it a few years ago. I can tell you these facts. Big web shop owners wanted nothing to do with legalization from day one because it would mean the government would force them to buy licenses and the little ones like I was would just have continued to operate behind the screens without paying a penny. Even if the government manages to "tax" them they (as would have) will just create a shadow double accounting system. Everything is on servers way out of the reach of Bahamian government agencies so they can't audit the programs running on them. One real and only visible to me and one for the government to see. I would have been at a slight loss or break even every month. I would not have bothered to buy licenses, I am convinced they will not police and enforce this past like 3 months from the day of inception. We all know the gov is like a child. They get a new toy and play with it every day for a week, after that the toy goes to the bottom of the drawer. The only way the police would bother with the unregistered shops is if the big boys paid the officers incentives that will mean they will offer less payouts to the players to cover the overhead. As an unregistered webshop I would be stealing their business being able to offer higher prizes. If the big boys are forced to register and pay license fees unregistered shops will be The only thing limiting newcomers is the problem obtaining safe locations for their terminals. We feared one thing but only a little as I knew the web shop bosses with real money (one shop owner who also meddles in human smuggling collects $150,000 after winnings paid out per day!!! from Exhuma alone brought in on the ferry in briefcases) were paying off politicians not to make the industry legal. That thing was government run lottery. I would have been able to develop a secure system for less than a hundred grand. It would use numbers drawn in any US city, would therefore be safe from the given Bahamian tampering with winning numbers. Servers would cost about $1,000/month in a very secure US hosting location connected through VPN only to every terminal on the island. All access to the server for administration would also be only through private IP through VPN tunnels and intrusion detecting firewalls. Not even visible on the internet. The most expensive thing would be special paper for the tickets. Hardware costs per location sub $500. The source code would be provided to government to run independent security audits to ensure no back doors exist (this would also be the other most expensive item) then Zend Guard encrypted. Forget the bullshit about a system costing millions of dollars. Of course that would put private web shops out of business overnight. No need for much enforcement of the existing laws which make them illegal as they would simply unable to compete.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 5 months ago
Nothing surprising here
People running illegal businesses see nothing wrong with operating other illegal and unsavory businesses
Slimy politicians taking bribes
National lottery good for Bahamas, bad for extortionist MPs and business owners profiting from illegal webshops operation
Police force do nothing about illegal webshops owners "spinning wheels are not evidence of an illegal operation", No business license for gaming but bring the hammer, I mean wrecking ball down on small nightclubs and corner bars.
One correction...they will never police it. They will continue to receive bribes and extort the owners...a man used to eating sugar corn pops does not switch cold turkey to cream of wheat. This bribery and extortion fee is too sweet for the Shameless.
Anyway the US have all of them on tape arranging their pickup, I guess when it's in "their interest" they'll drop the bomb
asiseeit 10 years, 5 months ago
This is purely a payoff. CORRUPTION is a hallmark of the PLP and it just does not get any more blatant than what we see happening around the country at this time. WHEN ARE THE BAHAMIAN PEOPLE GOING TO WAKE UP? This is no longer about US, it is about future generations. We are letting these kleptocrats destroy our country. Only the die hard idiots can even think of defending this regime, and sadly we seem to have many of them out there with their heads buried in the sand. The people of this country should hang their heads in SHAME as WE allow what is happening by sitting around not doing anything to hold these outright criminal politrickans accountable for their misdeeds. When The Bahamas is forced into a revolution, we will all be the cause through inaction!
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 5 months ago
What's the answer, all I've heard is that it will take PGC's own party to give a vote of no confidence to get a new election. And these guys, as you point out, could care less about how the country is being governed. They are just trying to steal as much as possible before 2017. It's like they're going at triple the extortion pace of 2002. The last thing they're going to do is give a vote of no confidence. The strategy now is non-stop party atmosphere/distraction: Relays, Junkanoo, Carnival. Repeat.
Oh I forgot, National Hero's Day/Roots rerun on ZNS
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