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| Going halfway with legalizing gambling |
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Published: Jul 21, 2012
Dear Editor,
It’s time we stop making excuses for not completely legalizing gambling. Do you realize that any Bahamian can travel to any other country in the world and walk into their casinos and gamble, play the slot machines, blackjack, and any other game that is available to them, yet when we come home we are forbidden to do so? How ridiculous is that? I’m not going to sit here and argue with the Christian council or any one from the church. It is their right as citizens to be against it. But it is also the right of everyone who voted in the election to also have their say and have it all presented to them in order to say if they are for it or against it. I have heard the lame excuses about why Bahamians should not be allowed to gamble in the casinos, but so far the only people I hear saying anything are the ones who are already rich and successful. Yet every talk show you listen to, the rest of the people are for it. How come in a so-called democracy the few are speaking for the rest of us? Over the years we have been allowed to gamble at the carnival, but the foreigners were all reaping the benefits of that. Now they want to legalize gambling, but only halfway. Yet once again the foreigners are allowed to reap the rewards. The argument is that if they allow Bahamians to gamble in the casinos, then they will spend all of their paychecks. This argument is just as lousy as when they didn’t want Sunday shopping. Remember that almost 20 years ago? Yet once it happened their fears never came to light. It’s an insult to me as a responsible person to say what I will do with my paycheck if I am allowed to gamble in the casinos. I have a right as a citizen of this country to play numbers, the lotto, and also to walk into the casino when the referendum is passed and gambling is legalized. Once again this is a democracy, not a country run by the few and their own beliefs. So come referendum Prime Minister Perry Christie, stand up for the people you ran on saying Bahamians first. The people are speaking loudly and clearly. If you ignore them, then it says that your campaign slogan was just that, only a slogan, and you didn’t really mean it when you said Bahamians first.
– Filipe Andrew Colebrooke |
