Excellent points John.

Tal, like Birdie you also have the unique ability to obfuscate a critical issue by attacking the messenger. Yes, Rupert wanted to have gambling in his stores but if he also says its taking away food sales then that too is also true.

The real issue is that gambling is sucking funds out of the productive economy and it is having a devastating impact on society, especially in Long Island.

Armchair critics like us are also to blame as we have correctly identified the problem but will not sacrifice anything to fix it. Perhaps this is your real point.

Birdie, like the true PLP you have the great ability to obfuscate. While it is true that the same people are gambling who gambled when it was illegal, an entire new set of gamblers have come on stream and the number of outlets have proliferated.

While Bahamians are overweight it is shameful that children are going to school hungry and can't learn because their parents have gambled away grocery money.

If this is good then shame on you.

DonAnthony, excellent analysis of the devastating impact of gambling on Long Island.

The FNM (or DNA or whom ever wins the next election) will have a virtually impossible task of rebuilding the economy with over 400 webshops and growing. A very significant portion of the countries GDP is being siphoned of by this non productive and highly addictive activity especially impacting those that can lease afford it.
The truth be told that its impact, I believe, but I have no facts to prove it, that it has a more negative impact than corruption under the PLP. We simply need to know the total size of the gross net winnings of all the webshops and divide that number by the GDP (approx $9 billion).

Example if the net winnings is $400 million, then its about 5% drain on GDP. No amount of foreign investment (Baha Mar, tourism, agriculture, fishing or second home market) can offset that. Not to mention the drain on social services, education and the lives destroyed for generations to come.

My advice to all Bahamians is to discourage your loved ones from using webshops.

Goto, if you are a Bahamian citizen you have already bought the bonds, as NIA or the Treasury will subscribe to the entire issuance. Guess whoes on tape for the government....you and me.

Greentea, no need for Flowers to own a bank, so long as he can correspond with a bank that has legitimate correspondents to the global financial system. Enter BoB.

BahamaPundit, BoB can't be liquidated otherwise the webshops will go back underground as there will be no "legitimate" correspondent bank for them.

I say correspondent because the webshops are mopping up missing links in our financial system. Inter-island transfers, 24/7 banking services, loans at resonable rates, branches in every settlement, international transfers, speculative investments etc. etc.

The government is not bailing out BoB, it is bailing in the Bahamian public. So where are these funds coming from at such attractive borrowing rates? From you and me via NIA or the Public Treasury.

In the meantime BoB continues to be the only bank providing banking services to the web shops. Which continues to endanger our correspondent banking system through which we trade globally.

No need to worry about a devaluation if you trading via correspondents becomes challenging as more and more correspondents withdraw their services.

75 cents at Sawgrass will look good once as the correspondence leave.

Any commission of enquiry as to what is causing this continued need for cash infusions at BoB? How much are we up to now? Almost $200 million in bail ins? How much more do we have to go? Find out what the balance of loans receivables is versus government deposits? $X00 million?

Brilliant response and spot on ThisIsOurs! Ask S&P and they will tell you that the government's rating is junk, that it can't borrow money on the international markets at a reasonable rate and that the local market for government debt is maxed out, or people are just afraid of devaluation if they buy any more government bonds. Investors have already suffered 2 quasi devaluations with VAT where everything became 7.5% more expensive and the interest payment on their government bonds was just reduced by 1/2%. Even at Sawgrass, according to a newspaper, the Bahamian dollar is only worth 75 cents. Better not go to Miami anymore wit out US dollars, ya ga get swing.

At the "trickle down" end of things the teachers aren't paid and the national education remains a "D". So we remain poor, black, uneducated...drinking liquor all day, buying numbers and going to church on Sundays. What wrong with dat.

I saw a dress code sign some months ago at the DMV testing department. Also, I've heard complaints that some young women going in for testing were turned away due to wearing shorts. However, this may not be true at the moment. I don't know.

Hmmmm.

So, you can't get a passport due a long waiting period, you can't get a voters card due to how you dress.

Even when you do vote in a referendum and say NO to gambling, your vote is ignored.

No wonder people don't want to get proper ID or vote because its too much of a struggle and basically the insinuation is that no matter what you do we in charge and control tings.