*Repost:* Simply unbelievable! Instead of pressing for the web shop legislation to be repealed in its entirety and then enforcing the complete shut down of all web shops, this yapping white-haired little poodle (D'Aguilar) simply told KP Turnquest that he should be imposing much more significant annual taxes and fees on the very impressive annual profits of the web shops. This is tantamount to saying that our government should be quite content to effectively participate as a significant profit-sharing partner in the corrupt money laundering and other racketeering activities of the numbers' bosses. Such an absurd stance by the Minnis-led FNM government only serves to anger regulators of the global financial system who cannot understand why our newly elected (and supposedly uncorrupt) government refuses to shut down the web shops and other related organizations owned and operated by the numbers' bosses that the developed countries regard as criminal enterprises. The IMF, FATF, OECD, etc. are all now telecasting loud warnings that our country will face increased "de-rerisking" by the highly regulated global financial community, and a possible cutting-off from the global financial system, if we do not shut down the money laundering and other illegal activities of the numbers' bosses. It seems abundantly clear now that Minnis and his cabinet ministers have allowed themselves to be "bought" by criminal thugs like Sebas Bastian! This would make our new government no different than the last one when it comes to corruption and who is really calling the shots in our country today. Has Minnis really allowed himself to become nothing but a puppet PM beholden to Sebas Bastian?!!

Very much agree!!

Comrades! If the Minnis administration were smart they could get serious with launching a plan that could totally erase the national debt by the year 2037...but not possible if they allow the Numbers Houses to stay in business beyond the next 6 months period. This is not ever going be a positive business for the Bahamaland. Numbers Houses are a spreading sore upon the nation. They should never have been 'regularised,' against the Voting Will of the people. It's time revoke all numbers licenses.All numbers gambling devices used - should be ordered exported off the Bahamaland, or be destroyed by the authorities.
Left alone they will suck BILLIONS dollars from the pockets of the poor and near poor, and the eager get something for monies they cannot afford spend, souls.

Y'ALL ACT AS IF CASH ADVANCE, WESTERN UNION, MONEYGRAM, RE-LOADABLE VISA CARDS DON'T EXIST EVERYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD! SHOULD WE NOT HAVE LOCAL PROVIDERS WHEN WE'D QUICKLY ALLOW THE FOREIGNOR TO DOMINATE SUCH MARKETS? WHAT'S THE ALTERNATIVE WHEN THE BANKS WERE FORCED BY FATCA'S DE-RISKING TO PULL OUT ANYWAY.

LIES.

LET THEM BLACKLIST IF THEY'RE GOING TO LIE TO STAMP OUT BLACK OWNED FINANCIAL SERVICES LIKE THEY ATTACK RUSSEL SINMONS' RUSH CARD. REMINDER, IT WAS THERE OWN BANKS THAT RIGGED THE LIBOR, THAT SCREWED THE WORLD IN A LENDING SHARK HOUSING MARKET CRISIS, THAT LAUNDERED DRUG AND TERROST MONEY, NOT THE NUMBER BOYS WHO ARE WATCHED WITH HIGH SCRUTINY. CHECK YOUR OWN LOTTOS.

You have to be kidding!

If you are conducting activities of a bank and you are licensed to be a web shop or internet cafe or taxi service and the corrective measure is to put forward some legislation or write some clauses (which questions why in the first place the govt lawyers could not see thst loophole) is simply not good enough.

The ability to withdraw money from the money supply causes shortgage less liquifity affects the proper functioning of the Legitimate Banking system. Timing is important brcause Banks have cycles they operate on like increasing interest rates to have high liquidity for loans for August vacations or back to school etc. For the Govt through the Central Bank who monitor weekly liquidity from bank returns and after a year plus since the eebshops were doing this to the money in circilation is alarming.

What is even more alarming is where funds on these accounts are coming from and to whom are the recipients. Yet another questionmark becsuse if an island is facing high unemployment and family from another island is sending them money then the govt does not know to help. Actually couples with gambling it is likely that suffering will be pronounced as persons use scarce funds to gamble.

This development now public should make all the persons in any position in the financial policing and regulayory govt salaried positions alarmed.

Of course now public the internagional regulatory bodies and owners and shareholders of banks operating here will note.

The systen should be shut down but then again people are suffering in the family islands. Breeches and violations of the banking act should be dealt with maximum punishments including jail time and maximum fines for all persons involved. Further investigations into the govt officials as to why this was allowed to happen and whomsoever the fault lies with must be jailed.

Lawsuits should be investigated by legal banks as the normal functioning and protections they expect from the authorities was not fully available and given the size of deposits withheld from which they expected to do business was removed from the money supply they faced losses amd suffered.

The disclosures made by D'Aguilar about the illegal money transmission activities of the numbers' bosses provide the Minnis-led FNM government with ample justification for immediately terminating all licenses granted to the web shops and their related entities. This should be followed by the regulators issuing and/or obtaining a court order for the shut down and seizing of all assets and records of these entities and their owners/operators.

Minister D'Aguilar's disclosures made while standing on the floor of the HOA are now a matter of official public record and fully support the global financial community's long standing position that the web shops and their related entities constitute racketeering criminal enterprises engaged in money laundering and other illegal actives. If Minnis fails to press for these criminal enterprises to be shut down, the global financial community will be perfectly within their right to cut-off all financial institutions domiciled in the Bahamas from the global financial system until such time that such "de-risking" is no longer warranted.

"*we bank with a bank that is supervised by the Central Bank of the Bahamas*" you can stop with that argument. that only reminds people about years of looting, and who was watching again?
"*We are regulated by, and visited by, the Gaming Board*"
That's exactly why everyone's concerned. All this crap happened during their visits

"*Our source of funds is so evident*".. Actually no its not,

no one knows where your money was coming from during the decades you were operating illegally and no one will ever know. If the government had been serious with fines imposed to regulate you guys, the international community might have been reassured. But they gave you a slap on the wrist. And somehow Flowers' conviction for illegal gaming was overturned because HE didn't know his employees were operating a gaming facility, then the money that was identified as the results of his employees' ILLEGAL operation was returned to him, how does that make sense??? And why would it instill any confidence in anyone that the Bahamas was serious about policing anything.

Do things right the first time and nothing will come back to bite you.

How do they fix it? I'd go with Mudda's suggestions, there's no other way to remove the cloud and trying to do some fancy slight of hand where you end up in the same controlling position will only make things worse, cause they'll know they can't trust this govt to clean you up and police you either

Anyone who enters a web shop to gamble thinking that they are going to come out with more money than they entered with is an arrogant idiot. As the web shop owners know, he Bahamas has tens of thousands of arrogant idiots. Web shops are evil, they exploit the ignorant who do not understand simple mathematics. Gambling is a self imposed tax on people who do not understand mathematics. The government should tax and regulate this industry as much as possible leaving the owners with minuscule profits. Invest the proceeds into mathematics teachers.

Unfortunately heavy-handed taxation and fees are not the answer. We cannot afford for our government to be seen to be partnering with criminal enterprises with its share of the ill-gotten profits/gains taking the form of high taxes and fees. Our international friends and the global financial community would much prefer our government shutdown the criminal enterprises headed by the corrupt racketeering numbers' bosses and establish a National Lottery.

While I have to support the poodle and you guys in that the web shop industry has been predatory and has only served to enrich the operators, we all have to address the political fortitude required to act in this scenario.

I'm not sure if its in this administration's best interest to touch this issue so early in their term. This can have dramatic effects on its popularity given the significance these jobs have on a particular demograhpics on our community. When we shut them down, how do we find jobs for these people? The commercial banks wont hire the lady from Brougham street punching numbers at Asure Win. Walk into any of the commercial banks today and see the people they hire vs web shop operators.

You, Sir, are a hardcore corrupt PLP. As such you obviously support (as Pindling and Christie did) jobs created by the smuggling of drugs, the smuggling of firearms and ammunition, human trafficking and money laundering. Meanwhile, as an elitist PLP, you are quite content to watch as our country is destroyed from within by the activities of criminals with free rein.

last word s/b reign