@ OriginalBey
Reducing the cost of business in Grand Bahama would have to go through the GBPA, the cost of a business license in the port area is crazy and the cost of electricity is even worse. If the cost of doing business is reduced then GB will see and moderate to immediate spike in economical increase. If they can reduce the fees to travel into GB then the amount of people and airlift coming in will increase. Once those numbers increase then the domino effect begins. We could be looking at more requests for rooms than are available, that then leads to more persons looking at the possibility of vacation rentals and other small boutique hotels popping up. But nothing will happen until the cost of business is reduced on Grand Bahama Island. The government is working on everything else but the key factors needed to get GB back on track. And as an FNM supporter its shameful considering there are 5 MPs that know this because they live here in Grand Bahama.

Its a interesting concept but I think the majority of the people it is designed to attract do not understand the technology of it. Most of the people in the "underbanked" islands only want to be able to transfer/receive funds and pay bills. While I like the ingenuity of the idea, it makes more sense for the government to work with the existing webshops that have the applications in place. Increase the due diligence needed to open an account and have them provide the service though select staff that have received additional training fro that sole purpose. They already have stores in all the islands and they have the clientele.

The problem isn't the hotel. How is it that Abaco is doing well, New Providence is doing well and other islands are doing well when it comes to their tourism industry? Its not the island, it is the governing entity. I've been living in GB for 15 years now and I'm convinced that its not the island. GB is a great location, has miles of beaches, is well developed and maintained. For some reason or another its beyond expensive to work and grow your business here. Airfare is expensive, electricity is expensive, business licensing is expensive and the list continues.

If the proceeds are guaranteed to go towards making the Bahamas better then I'm all for it. Just as long as there policies surrounding the proposed lottery are transparent. While health is a major issue, I'm not sold that free health care is the way to go. I'm more team education than I am for team health.

"I can say the conversation has started where we are looking at options to use the existing framework for the government to create its own game, utilising existing infrastructure and existing franchisors in the market. There is thinking that is going behind that subject, but it's too early to say what that would look like."

Stop reading too much into nothing @ well_mudda

This is the approach that should have been taken from the onset. It would have allowed the government to establish itself in the shortest amount of time as a viable option for a lottery. That way the government can promote it as the only true Bahamian Lottery. The only problem has been and continues to be the lack of trust that continuous governments will misappropriate money. That fault doesn't lie in the thieves, it lies in the people that refuse to press for the thieves to be prosecuted. But I would support the idea of a Bahamian lottery, as long as pars of those proceeds go directly towards reducing the overall debt and another portion is split between education and sports.

@john Last time I checked cocaine hasn't been a legalized industry anywhere. So that comparison doesn't even make sense. @truebahamian what does honest look like? I would live to hear your description of honest.@sheeprunner12 can any credible person vouch for how alot of Bahamain businessmen made their money?

Some or the arguments that we bring up to explain our disdain of people make no sense. Especially since we only want to apply the reasoning towards specific people. Don't let unfounded allegations and gossip be your measuring stick who is honest and who is not.

I'm still at a loss as to why we feel the need to make the webshop owners into villains. These men were apart of an illegal venture, they could have stayed underground and keep all of their profits to themselves save for the payouts to the corrupt MPs and Officers. They made the provisions to legitimize and create a new industry. They should be applauded for their ingenuity. Grant it their move to legalization is clouded because of the ineptitude of the former government. But blame the former government for their lack of transparency during the process. All this "low life thing and cartel talk is pure nonsense. Yeah, they made lots of money, loads of money but are they at fault for being profitable? Isn't that why people go into business? If we have so much energyy to push for the closure of the web shops, let's push for the closure of the liquor stores as well.

Waiting on BirdieStrachan and TalRussell to comment on something totally irrelevant. Maybe how someone is a liar or incompetent or maybe even some drivel about redshirts, imperialism and comrades.

This is where I would use that hand over the face emoji.

@ thisisours, if the current government is unable to get the budget balanced in this term do you think they will be voted back in for another term to continue working towards balancing the budget? the timeline is necessary that's the point of having a goal, setting a time to complete it.