By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

TOURISM Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar yesterday insisted it would be impractical to close the door on a national lottery, acknowledging that it was better to tax and heavily regulate web shops than to completely outlaw them.

Mr D’Aguilar was responding to the Christian Council’s disappointment over the revival of public discourse concerning a national lottery. He told The Tribune the religious body’s stance was simply “not a practical solution”. Last week, Bahamas Christie Council President Bishop Delton Fernander said he was “shocked” that two government ministers publicly supported the creation of a Bahamian national lottery, adding it was the council’s expectation for the government to either tighten the existing legislation or repeal the law.Yesterday, Mr D’Aguilar said to outlaw web shops would simply place the country in the same position it was in prior to the Christie administration making them legal after Bahamians voted against making them lawful enterprises.

“I perfectly understand their view,” the minister told reporters yesterday. “Their view is that there should be no gaming at all – whether it’s a lottery or not a lottery. I can’t believe that they would agree with the status quo. I would presume that they don’t like the status quo. They don’t like the lottery. They don’t like anything and that’s fine and I understand where they are coming from.

“I get it, but that’s not a practical solution.

“We now have gaming on the ground and we have to deal with it.

“We can’t outlaw it completely because we were in that situation and it didn’t work. So there has to be some sort of compromise. I intend to be practical. I understand their religious point of view and the view from which they’re coming from and if I was the good bishop I would say exactly the same thing but I’m not the good bishop and so I have to come up with a practical solution.”

The Free Town MP said in this situation the government could not please everyone, as he blamed the former Christie administration for placing the government in this position.

He was speaking of Bahamians’ overwhelming vote against legal gaming in a referendum on January 28, 2013. Despite this, the Progressive Liberal Party legalized web shops in 2014.

He said: “The people did vote no but the previous government decided not to abide by that vote. We are now in and we have to deal with the current situation on the ground.

“Personally I voted for the referendum. I have always said that I have never ran away from that. My belief was that it was against the law and it was pervasive. Everybody was doing it so outlawing it was not solving it.

“My position is its better to tax and to heavily regulate. That’s a much better situation to be in because if you outlaw it they just go underground and do it anyway.”

The tourism minister told Tribune Business last week that a national lottery is “front and centre”. The comments followed Deputy Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest’s comments in July that he believed the introduction of a national lottery in the Bahamas was worth a second look.

The comments did not sit well with Bishop Fernander, who told The Tribune he was shocked by the Minnis administration’s turnaround on the issue.

“We take great note that these were the people who stood with the church against gambling and as soon as they get in power no less than the deputy prime minister and the tourism minister have put forth that they have to go to gambling as if there is no other solution to the problems we are facing,” Bishop Fernander said last week.

Bishop Fernander maintained the BCC would not support a national lottery.