Gambling is a most serious addiction that has destroyed the lives of so many individuals and their families. And unlike liquor, cigarettes, etc. which are very heavily taxed, the web shop owners/operators are very much under-taxed in relation to the harm they cause to our society.

The greedy likes of Sebas Bastian and Craig Flowers would love nothing better than to experience a windfall of profits from all of the government assistance that's now being given to so many by way of direct NIB payments or emergency orders to private sector businesses to defer the receipt of payments they are entitled to eventually receive. Many who are benefiting from all of this assistance are gambling addicts and regular patrons of the web shops.

These gambling addicts would rather play the numbers than buy food and medicine for themselves and their family members. Minnis should have long ago repealed all of the legislation that was wrongfully put in place to 'legalize' the webshops against the wishes of the Bahamian people expressed in a duly held national referendum.

How many not addicted gamblers (or many grabbing ex-criminal owners) give a crap about these number houses? Keep them closed.

THE GAMBLING SHOPS ARE FOUL. KEEP 'EM LOCKED DOWN. As with other addictions there is no half-way for gamblers. Hobby Horse Hall was closed for the same reason decades ago. Do our corrupt politicians never learn ANYTHING?

You do realize that by keeping them closed, Bahamians will not be working and receiving salary during this time? So, they cant feed families, pay mortgages, contribute to VAT payments, etc.?

Which then means that most of them will lean on the government for support, this straining the already stretched resources...thus causing the government to borrow more money, thus increasing our debt...
Not sure that cutting off your nose (causing additional unemployment) to spite your face (closing numbers houses) is the best move at this time.
And that's before we even get to the question as to whether the government can legally keep the gaming houses closed.

Sadly most gambling addicts fail to realize the gaming web shops owned and operated by the numbers bosses are very much a 'rigged game'. At any time the sleasy likes of Bastian and Flowers are able to change the win-loss probabilities behind their electronic numbers games to lower the loss-payouts in order to achieve their very greedy profit goals at the expense of their fleeced patrons.

There is no way that the gambling houses produce more jobs than they cost our society. Money that would otherwise would be flowing through legitimate businesses that actually produce something of value for our country, has leaked out of the real economy and into the pockets of those who simply do not need anymore. Especially in this time of crisis. Quit pretending that you are most concerned for your workers. that we are all in this together. Everyone with their eyes open understands that the owners of the web shops are never satisfied with enough. What is the definition of a vampire squid?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_s…

Here you go.

the problem with gaming is it sucks money out of the economy and doesn't produce anything worthwhile in return. "*vampire*" is an adequate definition

but I do find it strange that nobody noticed they were open for five days. Makes me wonder if someone didnt get their payment

So these parasitic, blood sucking gaming or webshop people want believe they should be exempt from the lockdown order and allowed to continue on sucking money out of people? That they are being singled out and victimised? Tell these vampires to shut up and sit small. They lucky they even got licenses to run the business that they got because they never should have gotten licenses in the first place. Imagine, giving licenses to run gaming businesses to a bunch of people who was breaking the law for a bunch of years before getting their licenses and making money hand over fist before and after. I don't see what they do for the economy except maybe pay some low-level taxes on their ill-gotten gains. In this time of COVID 19, NIB and government would be stupid to be giving our tax dollars to people who out of jobs because of the virus for them to go up or down the road from NIB and gamble it away at a webshop. Besides, these guys were never really closed. Yes, the bricks and mortar buildings might have been closed to walk-in customers but their online gaming business hasn't stopped running because of the virus. If you want to gamble with them, then all their customers who have online accounts continued gaming online. Sebas and them should count themselves as lucky. Every one of the gaming licenses should have either been sold at auction to the highest bidders or anyone who wanted to and has the financial and other capacity to run a webshop should have been allowed to apply for a license. Also, the government was shortsighted. They should be licensing shopkeepers and others to sell scratch-off cards or sell numbers for the webshops and make a commission like how the phone companies allow people to top-up anywhere. The country is not making the kind of tax money out of this so-called industry that it could.

That's it Porcupine. It's just a whine to help the cause of these parasites. It's rather like the mafia saying 'look how many jobs we create, leave us to our own devices'. Close 'em down and keep 'em closed!!