By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

MORE than two months after gaming operators expressed concerns to top government officials about illegal gambling, “nothing much” has happened to address the problem, Island Luck CEO Sebas Bastian said yesterday.

Gaming operators believe the continued presence of illegal operations jeopardise their investments and undermines efforts they have made to gain legitimacy.

“It’s been about two months since we voiced our concerns,” Mr Bastian said. “We still haven’t heard anything back from the regulatory authorities as to how they plan to address illegal gambling. It’s a big concern for us. We’re subjected to a lot of taxes and fees.”

Island Luck plans to launch its Initial Public Offering (IPO) process this year, and it sees illegal gambling as a potential obstacle.

“We are pleased to announce that we will be launching the Island Luck IPO this year and now many Bahamians throughout the Bahamas will be afforded the opportunity to own a piece of this economic pie and in preparation for that it’s important that regulators clean up the industry in any way it can, not only because it’s right but to protect the investments as well,” Mr Bastian said. “The public can rest assured that the best IPO in the history of the Bahamas is on the way and I’m pleased to be a part of affording that opportunity to the average Bahamian. There’s very little investment opportunity that has any sort of significant yield in our financial sector right now, so this one’s for the people.”

Mr Bastian also said operators are awaiting an update on a promised moratorium on web shop construction that Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe has said is in the works.

“Investors want to be protected from a saturated marketplace and obviously there’s no room for additional web shops,” he said. “There’s too many as it is now. There’s a lot of regulatory plans to clean a lot of that up but certainly there should not be anymore web shops. It’s important to have a moratorium to protect the investments and we await the minister’s rapid response.”

Mr Bastian’s complaints about web shop proliferation are in line with concerns FML Group of Companies CEO Craig Flowers has expressed.

After Mr Flowers called last year for regulators to limit the number of web shops granted per gaming license, Mr Bastian called his idea “nonsensical.”

“This latest tactic by Mr Flowers seems to be an attempt to level the playing field for self interests, but I can tell you that strategy is flawed,” he told The Nassau Guardian last year.

Yesterday, however, Mr Bastian suggested his views have become more aligned with Mr Flowers, at least on the issue of needing to limit the number of web shops being created.

“Mr Flowers is the father of the industry, a great man, I learned a lot from him,” he said. “We are definitely of one accord with where we want to take the industry.”