The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY Wayne Munroe, who represents six webshops, said yesterday while he is “happy” that the government has finally decided to regulate webshop gaming, his clients would probably be “better off without it”.

Speaking with The Tribune, Mr Munroe said he hopes his clients will be able to see the Bill before it goes to the House of the Assembly for debate so they can add their views and see if it is in their best interests.

“My clients and I would like to first see what the government is going to propose. They say that they are going to regulate the framework of how they like to operate, license and tax webshops, but the government has to ensure that consumers as well as businessmen are comfortable with the end result. Knowing the approach that the Minister takes, I would hope that at least we would get to see the Bill if only a day or two before it is taken to (Parliament) so that we can give them our views,” Mr Munroe said.

“I can honestly say now that I am happy to see that someone from the government has finally come forward and is doing what they were elected to do. In my mind the government at this point should have come forward and said to the Bahamian people ‘sorry that we made a mistake’, but that is the problem with petty politics.”

Mr Munroe also called the FNM hypocrites for doing the “leg work” for the regulating of web shops, but then encouraging the public not to support it.

“There are a lot of hypocrites in the FNM,” said Mr Munroe. “When they were in power they did all the leg work to have webshops regularized. They had conversations where Minnis sat at the table. Now he is on the other side, telling people not to vote for it, not to support it. This is a victory in terms of common sense and sound judgment. Now whether my clients would be better off with the regulation, probably not, but they prefer this avenue to prevent unscrupulous persons from entering the market.”

Mr Munroe represents Island Game, Island Luck, FML, Asue Draw, Whattfall and Chances.

Last January, Bahamians overwhelmingly rejected regulating and taxing webshops. Bahamians also said ‘No’ to establishing a national lottery.

Soon after, Prime Minister Perry Christie ordered the shutdown of all webshops.

However, the webshops were able to get a conservatory order to stop their closure.

Months later, Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett lifted the order. The case was then taken to the Court of Appeal who stayed Sir Michael’s ruling.

The webshops then dropped their appeal.

Wednesday night, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe announced that the government will push to regularize and tax webshop gaming by July 1. He said the government will bring legislation to the House of Assembly within the next two weeks which will legalize the industry.

Mr Wilchcombe said he hopes the Bill will pass before the beginning of the new fiscal year, so the government would be able to “make some money” as soon as possible.