By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

NO CONSTITUTIONAL changes are required if the government wants to allow gambling in all of its forms for Bahamians, Constitutional Committee Chairman Sean McWeeney said yesterday.

Presenting the committee’s recommendations to the government, Mr McWeeney said while the commission finds the idea that Parliament can discriminate against its owns citizens “repugnant”, they feel it is not appropriate at this time to alter article 26 of the constitution that deals specifically with gambling.

He said the article does not prohibit Bahamians from gambling, but rather protects the constitution from challenge if Parliament enacts a law.

In fact, Mr McWeeney said, the whole issue of Bahamians being able to gamble can be easily fixed by a simple amendment by the government.

“They can get rid of this problem by simply editing section 50 of the Lotteries and Gaming Act. The only restriction they need to keep in place is that you are an adult. If you change or get rid of section 50 entirely it opens the flood gates. The referendum was not a waste of time because it means a lot in terms of trying to understand where the public stands on this issue, but you can just get rid of this problem by editing section 50,” he said.

“I have a personal view. Personally I find it very repugnant that there is a law in the Bahamas that discriminates again its own people. I think that it is unfortunate that this issue became inflated with the constitution when it was a simple legislative solution. All the Parliament has to do is repeal section 50 of the Lotteries and Gaming Act and by doing that Bahamians will then be free to gamble in casinos and free to engage in any form of gaming. The Constitution does not say that you cannot repeal section 50. The constitution says if you have a law that discriminates in relation to gambling it’s okay, but the way you deal with that is simply eliminating the law that discriminates against Bahamians which is the lotteries and gaming act, not the constitution.”

Earlier this year, Bahamians overwhelmingly voted against legalizing and regulating numbers and a national lottery.

Following the January referendum on web shop gaming, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced that all web-shops must close with immediate effect; but web-shops filed an injunction to block any move by the government from interfering with its operations.