The drug era of the 1970s and 80s had a devastating effect on individuals, families, and communities, effects which are still being felt decades later. Similarly, the continued rise and devastating effects of gaming, fuelled by a few business houses, is doing grave social and moral harm that is wrecking families and our democracy.

Unlike other economic sectors, gaming produces no genuine goods or services like agriculture, fisheries, education, tourism, and other productive services. Though the analogy is not exact, gaming, like illicit drugs, feeds off the addiction of many whose lives and livelihoods are destroyed by gambling habits.

Gaming has become dangerously normalised, with many believing that potential winnings are part of their daily lives and income generation. The proliferation of the gambling culture is so pervasive that its tentacles are seen in numerous neighbourhoods throughout New Providence. Even at the Mall at Marathon, there is a large gaming location.

With the reach of the gaming houses and the ability to gamble online throughout the day and night, gamblers can get their fix at any time with few restrictions by the state on the gaming trade.

Spinning has a particular psychological effect. One can keep spinning, not having to wait for a number to fall. One can spin oneself into bankruptcy and financial ruin at the expense of family and children.

Spinning is a highly addictive habit. More women are spinning than men. With women heading most households and being the primary breadwinner, this is especially destructive on family life and social culture.

There are multiple games gamblers can play around the clock from home, on their mobile devices, or in a gambling and casino establishment. While many buy numbers, spinning is also a game of choice for many.

Many Family Islands, with limited financial resources and economic opportunities, are being drained of money. Little of this money is ever returned to those communities. The fun days and giveaways to these communities and in New Providence are a patronizing insult to Bahamians.

They are marketing schemes intended to flummox, bamboozle and trick, while hyping business. They create further dependency on gaming bosses, who use this economic power to gain greater political influence and notoriety. Why did we start to make gaming bosses, ambassadors?

It is a worrying and dangerous sign of the times when religious leaders who publicly and privately opposed the legalisation of gaming are now accepting honours, public recognition, and/or money from gaming bosses. What happened?

How many religious ministers have accepted money from gaming interests even as their congregants suffer from the effects of gambling?

Moreover, how is it that those who benefit from gamblers squandering school fees, rent money, mortgage and car payments, and money for food, are somehow seen as heroes or upstanding entrepreneurs deserving of public adulation or potentially political office?

Instead of relying on funds given out by gaming houses for charitable causes, a state lottery, run through private management, would be a greater source of charitable giving. We should not be fooled: the donations given out by gaming houses are considerably more about power and influence than generosity of spirit.

Again, unlike most other businesses, gambling offers little productive, except the thrill of gambling itself and a promised reward that rarely materialises. A well-regulated national lottery could have returned considerable rewards to Bahamians. Instead, the government of the day obsequiously bowed at the feet of gaming bosses.

As mass gambling has penetrated daily life, the sociological effect is far-reaching in areas such as family life and in the formation of habits like saving money and investing in a better future.

For a country desperately in need of financial literacy and education, Bahamians are now bombarded and undermined with messages about gaming interests. The launch of a media house by one gambling baron is another example of amassing even greater power. How much more political and economic power will the gaming mandarins seek and toward what end?

We are witnessing a vast redistribution of wealth, including from poor Bahamians, to a few gambling bosses, who are further enriching themselves.

A national lottery could have greatly benefitted a vast number of Bahamians in areas such as education, social development, and the arts and culture. Instead, hundreds of millions and more are being gorged at the expense of national development.

This is the depth of inequality. It is an offence to social justice and moral goodness. Some of the considerable profits of the gambling barons could fund universal preschool in the Bahamas.

Investing in preschool education is known to be successful in helping children, especially children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This includes helping children to get a better start in life, helping them with health and nutrition and brain development

Pre-school help children to develop early skills in literacy, numeracy and oracy, as well as other basic life schools and human development, often missing in many of our children who live in difficult family and social circumstances.

Investing millions in preschool could help in the fight against crime and in the repair of our social culture. Instead, mass gambling may help to fuel more crime and to further damage our social culture.

The equation is simple: We have allowed a precious few to live in great comfort while thousands of poorer citizens could have benefitted from a national lottery. Have those who allowed this to happen to have no moral shame or regret as they live in great comfort?

Since majority rule and independence there has been a flourishing of the middle class, especially of black Bahamians. In 50 years of independence, the country has made great strides in terms of economic empowerment for scores of Bahamians.

Still, there remains much to be done to empower more Bahamians economically including greater access to capital for entrepreneurs to help stimulate domestic and home-grown investment. A national lottery would be a source of significant capital to help stimulate domestic development.

Communities in New Providence the Family Islands do not merely need Christmas parties and giveaways. They need concentrated economic and social investments partly derived from a national lottery in which money is reinvested in these communities.

Instead of a few tokens to the masses, the Bahamian people should be the majority shareholders and owners of a legalized lottery system, a sort of modern asue that can be used to advance national development.

Historically, slave masters, colonialists, and the old guard hoarded wealth and rigged the economy to benefit their private interests at the expense of the masses and the public good.

How shameful that a new guard which came into being to fight such entrenched greed at the expense of the mass of Bahamians, turned its back on the majority in thrall to a wealthy minority interest, making a mockery of much of the struggle for majority rule and independence.

Bahamians do not need scraps from the overflowing numbers banquet table. The table and the full meal belong to the people, not to a select few.

Today, gaming bosses have become more powerful and a greater threat to our democracy. While there is no constitutional restriction on a gaming boss running for parliament, all political parties should publicly state that they will not run a gaming boss or executive for the House of Assembly.

The power of the gaming bosses has already become too great. Is it about to get even greater and more harmful as more Bahamians become addicted to gambling, while being brought temporarily high, and ultimately low because of their addiction,

The profits from this addiction continues to flow to greedy interests who are doing our country grave and widespread moral harm. Where is the moral outrage!?