EDITOR, The Tribune.

As we draw closer to the regulation of the web shop industry, all of a sudden scores of persons have become experts on how the gaming industry should be run.

These people are all over print media and talk shows giving advice as to how the business should be conducted these overnight experts are now professing to know more than the people that have been involved in the business for almost 40 years.

Some of them have never set foot in a webshop, but they know everything that goes on in them. It is all about speculation and hearsay. One of the main concerns that the industry faces is that it is grossly under estimated.

Case in point - the chairman of the gaming board insinuated that webshop owners are cheating the customers by rigging the machine to slow down the bonuses pay out. Of all people, he should know that this is not true. Because all slot machines and online gaming is governed by Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), the world’s leading gaming testing laboratory and technical consultancy. Before any slot machines or online gaming devices are given the ok, they must be tested by GLI. The payout details are set when the machines are manufactured in the factory. It is not possible for anyone to change these payout percentages after that so with modern slot machines the question of rigged machines is totally out (there are demo games online where you play for free try it).

Another one of his assumptions is that spinning has become the more popular games in the webshops as numbers remain the game of choice to over 100,000 plus patrons daily. To see where the number games has evolved over the last 50 years makes one proud to witness what Bahamians are capable of and the trail blazers of the industry deserves to be applauded for transforming this considered racket into an industry worthy of national debate.

We also have to recognise that this goes beyond just regulating webshops. What we have is laws on the book that technology has rendered obsolete. And we need to change our laws to keep up with what is happening in the modern gaming industry. For more than 40 years, the law makers has allowed this industry to go unregulated without making amendments to place the laws in line with the world’s technology advancements.

As someone that indulges in a game of chance and frequents the webshop from time to time, I have taken a keen interest in finding out how they run and what goes on behind the scenes. I was surprised to learn that out of all the monies taken in by the webshops, more than 80 per cent goes back to the customers as winnings. Out of the remaining 20 per cent, expense has to be taken out. These expenses include, but are not limited to:

Rent – multi millions of dollars; annual pay rolls – multi millions dollars; real estate developments, millions of dollars (yes they own some of the buildings that they occupy);

NIB contributions _ millions of dollars; vehicles tens of thousands of dollars investments in technology and maintenance, multi-millions of dollars; business license, hundreds of thousands of dollars; utilities, inclusive of BEC, BTC, WTC CABLE, multi millions; sponsorship and donations, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Once this amount has been deducted, what is left is profit, but as one can see it is far less than what is speculated. But there is definitely enough for the government to get a hefty share in taxes. Last year, government collected just over eight million from the casino and quite a lot of that was then returned to the casino to help pay for promotions. Furthermore, some of that eight million was used in helping to keep the casino in Freeport open. This is less than what the government will collect from web shops once they are regulated.

Let’s move away from that for a while and see if we could find out why a lot of Bahamians are more tolerant of foreigners being successful in the Bahamas than they are of their own brothers. Here we are having a group of young men who have used their talents to do what no one else has done.

These young men should be recognised for taking what used to be a small time penny ante business into a world class operation, but they are being treated with disdain and utter disrespect and are in some cases being referred to as gangsters and mob bosses. In the early 1920s during the prohibition era, a very young man that hailed from Current Eleuthera ran rum to the United States. With his profits from rum running, Roland Theodore Symonette invested in real estate, liquor stores and eventually, a shipyard. The Symonette family’s holdings have never been publicly confirmed, but public speculation has placed it in the millions.

USD Pop Symonette became the first Premier of the Bahamas and was later knighted by the Queen of England served in the House of Assembly for 52 years longer than any other parliamentarian. Should I say more? Guess not.

While one understands the government’s position on foreigners. What are the reasons for the average joe taking such anti positions against the webshop owners? As a person whose ear is on the ground, one of the reasons being bantered about is that these web shops are nothing but dens of iniquities. This is so far from the truth because like mentioned earlier I frequent the webshops. Reasoning being that, yes I go there with intentions of winning a little, but I know that a little is all that I can win.

But the main reason I am in these shops are like most of the persons that are there – for some entertainment and relaxation while sharing pleasantries with other patrons. Another excuse being put forth by the ‘keep dem boys out’ is that the US has a problem with them using its lotto balls. This is so far from the truth because they have been given a letter of agreement allowing them to use the lotto balls. The only restrictions are they are not permitted to use any of the state logos or their paraphernalia.

Morality and abuse is more excuses why webshops are being shot down. Whew these are biggies that continue to amaze one because when we look around and see the many alcoholics and cigarette addicts and other unmentionables that the holier than thou continues to turn a blind eye to, you just don’t know what to say. Yet these terrible vices have been allowed to go unabated for longer than can be remembered, whether web shops are regulated or not there will always be gambling. But the smart thing to do is to regulate and profit from it. Once regulated everyone wins because already one of the web shop owners said they will make shares available to the public.

In the meantime, because you do not want to gamble does not give you the right to force me not to gamble.

TONY

Nassau,

June, 2014.