By MINDELL SMALL,Guardian Senior Reporter, mindell@nasguard.com

A former Member of Parliament in the Progressive Liberal Party administration wished the government good luck in any attempt to legalize gambling in The Bahamas. George A. Smith, who once represented the Exuma constituency, said the Lynden Pindling-led PLP proposed similar legislation approximately two decades ago, but was forced to retract it in the midst of fierce criticism from religious leaders.

"Yeah, we tried that," said Smith while on the Love 97 talk show 'Jones and Company' that aired yesterday. "There was a bill before Parliament, when Paul Adderley was Minister of Finance, to establish a board to legitimize the numbers business and the money had been earmarked to go into education, health services,

sporting and other social things.

The religious leaders objected to it and the bill was withdrawn by the then Prime Minister Lynden Pindling, because the principal spiritual leaders in this country felt uneasy about it. There has been no indication yet that they have withdrawn their objections."

Smith was right on target with his prediction, because on the same day that the radio show was recorded, Thursday, The Bahamas Christian Council responded to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, who told the House of Assembly the day before that he was considering legalizing gambling.

Ingraham argued last Wednesday that the existing anti-gambling law could not be enforced, and that it might be best if the government sought to regulate the business.

"I told the Commissioner of Police last week," said Ingraham, "that it seems to me that we are unable to enforce that [illegal gambling] law and that I was going to give consideration to legalizing the numbers business." The Prime Minister went on to say that there were web shops all over the islands.

But the Bahamas Christian Council quickly responded to the nation's chief, saying it could not support legalized gambling for Bahamians. "We urge the Prime Minister and his government to reinforce the law as it stands on the operation of number houses, as they are illegal," council president John Humes outlined in a statement last Thursday. "Furthermore, legislation should be put in place to control the amount of web shops that are opening."

George Smith said he did not agree with the position of the religious leaders, adding that there was already gambling in The Bahamas - done everyday in the casinos. He pointed out that it was not justifiable for Bahamians to continue to face discrimination under the existing anti-gambling law, which strangely condones the "illegal" activity if the person taking part in it is a foreigner.

"The constitution of The Bahamas is one of the few constitutions in the world that permits discrimination against nationals in favor of foreigners by permitting foreigners to gamble at the casinos when Bahamians and residents of The Bahamas cannot," said Smith.

"The great fear at the time, and I think it may have been displaced then and certainly is now, [was that] Bahamians don't have sufficient discipline to control how much they will spend."

Smith went on to say that the people should decide whether they want to legalize gambling. "If we are to permit gambling in the country, there has to be a tremendous debate and obviously it should be a matter that necessitates some referendum to determine where the money will go," he explained. "If you legalize gambling for Bahamians and the money ends up in the public treasury, the consolidated fund, it then gets gobbled up by all these other things that governments can do to spend money."

He suggested that the money be set aside for education and sporting initiatives, and to tackle the country's social problems such as crime, homelessness and poverty.

Last October, The Guardian spoke to half a dozen operators of number houses who all agreed that only certain 'webshops' houses are raided. One of the most vocal operators, who called himself the Number King, said any attempt to crack down on numbers would be hypocritical and a "big joke", as it was a well-known fact that police officers play numbers. He said, "Everybody dealing with numbers right now are paying for their window. Anything that you're dealing with like this, you have to pay for your window. And when I say your window, I mean once you pay your people, nobody will bother you. Most of my customers are police. All the big money making from numbers is from police, big-time politicians and government workers. Everyone else is only be giving us a quarter, 50 cents or a dollar."

Two years ago, the them tourism minister Obie Wilchcombe told Parliament that there were at least 45 illegal gambling houses in New Providence and 12 in Grand Bahama. He estimated that 60 percent of the population were playing the lottery.