The Tribune

By Simon

While many politicians and others continually bemoan structural issues in our economy in areas such as inequality, poverty reduction, education and training, greater equity in the tax code, social development and related matters, few are keen to address a glaring matter of economic injustice.

We speak easily of reform in numerous areas of national life. Yet, with a political directorate and others, including some religious leaders, subservient and obsequious to gaming bosses, the country’s leadership has refused to address the massive profits raked in by the gaming oligarchy.

Many politicians do not want campaign and party finance legislation because they do not want the Bahamian people to see the special interests funding their activities. This includes huge sums given by certain gaming entities, a jackpot of money corrupting our politics.

There is a compelling moral and economic need to reform gaming and its effects on the country. This includes problem gambling which is harming many individuals and families. Unlike other economic enterprises, gaming in itself produces nothing of inherent economic value.

Domestic gaming constitutes a vast and outrageous redistribution of wealth, mostly from lower income Bahamians, to a few gaming business owners, who are further enriching themselves, and who are giving very little back to the country relative to their enormous gains.

This is a grave offence to social justice and national progress. We are witnessing the considerable ethical and opportunity costs of allowing a few to live lavishly while hundreds of thousands more Bahamians could benefit.

Instead of a national or public lottery benefitting significantly more Bahamians, the Perry Christie government regularized/legalized a privately-owned lottery system, with the government receiving token revenues from taxing the lottery.

For a Progressive Liberal Party that touts its progressive and liberal values and a concomitant commitment to the poor, Mr. Christie’s decision to legalize private gaming was a stunning betrayal of the mass of Bahamians including an overwhelming majority who opposed legalization. This was a scandalous giveaway.

The national debt remains a source of perennial concern, with state resources stretched across our archipelago. We are always at risk of downgrade from various rating agencies.

Our social needs in areas such as education, health care and youth development are extensive amidst the social decay and rampant crime and violence we experience daily.

Money continues to pour out of poorer neighborhoods and many Family Island communities into the bank accounts of a relative few, with next to nothing returning to these communities, often leaving them even more impoverished and desperate.

The Bahamian middle class is falling behind and public education is in need of intensive and ongoing reform, better teacher salaries, and teacher retention.

The structural challenges in our economy are well known. In a press statement on a “University of The Bahamas [report] highlighting the challenges Bahamians face with the rising cost of living the Office of The Prime Minister noted: “These challenges are not new—they are deeply rooted in longstanding structural issues in our economy that have been building over many years.

“From limited competition in essential industries to high shipping costs, monopolised sectors, and a housing market affected by high demand from vacation rentals, the cost of living has remained persistently high in The Bahamas….

“Monopolies and a lack of competition in key areas mean that Bahamians often have limited choices and pay higher prices for goods and services.

“These structural issues require a committed approach, not just for short-term relief, but for long-term, lasting change…This government is committed to building a fairer, more competitive economy that puts Bahamians first.”

If the current PLP and the Davis administration want to make good on these fine words, they could start with a serious discussion on gaming reform, which was absent from the press statement.

If a government wants to pursue myriad structural reforms, it must include structural reform in gaming. We also need certain reforms in tourism, which is an urgent challenge for both major parties.

Gaming entities constitute a monopolised sector with huge revenues that would help to bring in an extraordinary degree of resources needed for public purposes. They sit atop an enormous pool of resources mostly untapped to help in our social development including: funds for the arts, sports and programs for at-risk youth.

Sadly, the political directorate, some in thrall to the owners of gaming houses, have refused to consider a national lottery or considerably higher taxes on such businesses as a means of increasing the resources necessary to address national development, climate change and debt servicing.

A well-regulated national lottery or higher taxation of gaming interests could return considerably more for the benefit of the mass of Bahamians. The gaming referendum showed more Bahamians voted for a public lottery.

As it has done for many years, in its most recent Article IV consultation statement on The Bahamas, the International Monetary Fund pressed the country on a range of revenue generating and enhancement measures.

As usual, a number of these measures are non-starters. Some of the technocrats at the fund often seem removed from the realities of the countries to which they offer certain advice. There are also a number of isolated mandarins at the Ministry of Finance who similarly live in a bubble.

As the IMF and others have observed for decades, The Bahamas is a highly vulnerable economy. We are at risk from climate change, hurricanes, pandemics, and economic downturns and shocks from overseas, particularly the United States.

Even as the government of The Bahamas is desperate, sweating for revenue and looking for ways to tax Bahamians, the gaming houses are rolling in the proverbial dough.

We are one of the few jurisdictions in the world with a fully privatised lottery system. This is economically and ethically asinine. It is in the best political and economic interest of the political parties to pursue gaming reform.

As a country that imports the vast majority of its goods we remain particularly vulnerable to international supply chains, which is helping to fuel the current punishing cost of living crisis.

Despite this reality, our political leaders refuse to even mention gaming reform. It is a blinding hypocrisy and moral indifference by those who spout words about inequality, social justice and fairness, while refusing to address the inequality fuelled by gaming.

In playing games of chance most people lose substantially more than they gain. Lotteries often prey on fear and hope, superstition and randomness. It involves the ultimate irrational exuberance. Still, a national lottery might help transform certain human traits into certain common goods and gain.

A public or national lottery is typically designed to expand opportunity and equality for citizens. They ensure a greater common good than do privately-owned lotteries which overwhelmingly concern the narrow interests of a few.

Because of the nature of lotteries, in most civilised societies they are largely government-owned and for a reason. These societies utilise lotteries to help rebalance the lotteries of life, which leave fellow citizens in need of help from the state.

A Bahamian recently won the $20.5m Florida Lotto jackpot. As the Lottery noted: “Since its inception in 1998, the game has awarded $10.98bn in prizes [and] created 1,099 millionaires.”

“The Florida Lottery’s sole mission is to maximise revenues for the enhancement of public education in Florida.” In the past several decades it has contributed: $17bn to Florida schools, $12bn to state colleges and universities and nine billion to the Bright Futures Scholarship Fund.

This fund has granted over 983,000 scholarships to Florida high school students “to make their dreams a reality with a college education”.

While a national lottery is not a panacea in terms of public revenue, it can provide significant revenue, without the need to increase certain taxes.

We should rise to the challenge to create and introduce a national lottery that is well run, accountable and a significant source of revenue that is returned to the Bahamian people. In the interim, we should consider higher taxes on gaming houses.

An independent gaming reform commission may review and investigate the effects of gaming, the need for additional measures to help problem gamblers, better regulation of and limits on hours of operation and advertising, and new international best practices.

Such reform may also analyse and recommend the basic structure of gaming in The Bahamas, including perhaps a hybrid public-private structure.

If the Bahamas Christian Council wants to take up a good and worthy cause, buttressed by Biblical injunctions and moral fervor, it might take up gaming reform.

The BCC may also encourage and invite the political directorate and others to a certain repentance and conversion in our loudly and often righteously proclaimed Christian nation guided by Christian values.