By Lyall Bethel, For The Guardian

A few weeks ago the Prime Minister [Hubert Ingraham] "upped the ante" (pun intended) on the gambling debate in the country by saying that he was going to "give consideration to legalizing the numbers business." — (The Nassau Guardian, Friday, Feb. 15 2008).

He reasoned that "the reality of the matter was that it was not an enforceable law, and that society was doing it everyday." He went on to say that "you might as well legalize the whole thing because you can't enforce it." Elaborating on this he added, "Are we going to continue to have what is supposed to be an illegal activity openly flaunted in the society everyday by thousands of Bahamians? The police are unable to do anything about it and we wouldn't change the law. We must either enforce the law or change it."

The Prime Minister has already been taken to task for this shallow thinking — why not legalize, prostitution, incest, marijuana and even murder, since they likewise seem unenforceable? — so I won't dwell on that aspect but on the issue of gambling itself. I believe (and I shall try to show) that gambling is inherently dangerous to any people trying to achieve a disciplined and ordered society (something The Bahamas is in desperate need of).

We are an independent nation and a people still in the throes of self-determination. We must be careful therefore, not to set a course for ourselves that will spoil any opportunity for greatness that we may wish to achieve.

I challenge anyone to show me a young nation built on luck and chance. Such a nation does not exist! Every great nation was built on discipline and hard work, qualities that seem to be lacking in our nation, hence, rather than weaken an already weak disposition our national efforts and energies ought to be focused on strengthening our national virtues.

The Tribune did a service to the Bahamian public on Tuesday, Feb. 18, by bringing to the public's attention the report of a select committee that was formed back in 1974 to research all aspects of the numbers racket in The Bahamas. That committee, it was revealed, while acknowledging a small minority of the population at that time was for the legalization of the practice of numbers, still felt that it would lead to "grave consequences".

They concluded that "since no productivity is involved, it fosters attitudes which are not truly consistent with the spirit of nation building. It helps to perpetrate the social state of those who are in the already vicious cycle at the lower end of the socio-economic pole." States the Tribune, "The committee ultimately recommended that every effort should be made by the enforcement agencies of The Bahamas to "stamp out that type of lottery known as the numbers racket which has taken root in our society."

Let me put forth 11 reasons why legalizing gambling would be disastrous to our already troubled Bahamian society.

* Gambling promotes a false value system of getting something for nothing! It promotes indiscipline, laziness and slackness. Imagine a farmer "hoping" for a good harvest rather than working diligently with his hands to bring it about! He knows intuitively that nature will never let him get much for very little. But the gambler, oblivious to nature, develops a get-rich-quick type of thinking that frequently leads to idleness, recklessness and irresponsible behaviour.

* Gambling is a major discouragement of thrift — the wise use of money. The gambler reasons to himself, "Why save when I can gamble?" Why put money aside in a savings account on a regular basis and collect interest when I can take the same money and try to win big and use my earnings to pay off my mortgage or the kids school fees, etc?" Gambling is the opposite of sound investment planning!

* Gambling thrives by the promotion of greed. I am sure that no one needs to be educated on the vice of greed and how destructive it is to ones character development, and anyone within its orbit of influence? The fact of the matter is that every one of us can fall prey to greed. Greed and materialism go hand in hand, and both lead to discontent.

The Bible states in Ecclesiastes 5:10 "He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver. Nor will he who loves abundance, be satisfied with increase." No just nation should deliberately foster such a ruinous spirit in its people!

* Gambling is a temptation to weak-willed persons, who frequently develop an addiction to gambling. The promoters of gambling love to wax eloquent about how the money to be made by government will be used to finance sports and other initiatives, but they always fail to acknowledge the social chaos that is produced by the new gambling addicts created.

* Gambling has brought about much family neglect, thus undermining the most important unit of society. The Hobby Horse Racetrack episode of gambling in our nation's history has produced many anecdotal stories of husbands and/or wives wasting their whole salary at the track. Rent due, no groceries. I have heard some horror stories from fairly reliable sources of desperate families resorting to prostitution of their children to raise a few bucks to sustain the family. Hey, but why should you care as long as it does not affect your family, right?

* Gambling is a hindrance to the development of a productive work ethic. With an already undisciplined work force that has been lampooned in song for coming to work late, leaving early, taking long lunch breaks (not to mention lacking in customer service skills), how do we think the legalizing of games of chance will impact such a work force that already does not equate money with hard work? Does the Ingraham administration (or any other for that matter) really want to add to this indiscipline and slackness, or does it want to change the status quo and actively try to create a disciplined and ordered society?

* Gambling fosters a wastage of money which could be used for productive purposes. Money that persons ought to be using to put towards productive purposes, such as fixing a leaking roof, repairs to the home, etc. is wasted on lottery tickets. One focus on the family study revealed that Americans gamble more money each year than they spend on groceries!

* Gambling promotes gains by a few at the expense of all the other players. For one person to win, many, many, many persons must lose, and on a regular basis! But aren't governments designed to foster an environment where everybody benefits from our being governed, rather than a tiny few benefiting from the vast majority?

* Gambling leads to an increase in crime, since gamblers tend to engage in crime to obtain money to gamble. When the money that wasn't really his to spend is lost, the gambler may believe that he/she is entitled to take it from you or me without asking. A federally funded study out of the US revealed that 86 percent of compulsive gamblers commit felony crimes to further their addiction.

* Gambling brings about the pauperisation of the gamblers, who often will have to resort to begging in order to gamble or just survive. How many homes will need to be lost to lack of repayment of debt, how many cars repossessed? How many homes will need to be broken up over a compulsive gambler who can't kick his habit before we acknowledge that this is wrong?

* Gambling can produce opportunities for illegal activity that can lead to corruption in the public and private sectors. Many impartial studies show that you just can't keep unsavoury elements out of gambling. Why would any right thinking Bahamian vote for more opportunities for corruption to take place in our society?

How can we as a nation that presently has an "F" average in our public high schools (D if one adds the private schools) believe that we should add the indiscipline of chance and "getting something for nothing" to the psyche of our youth? The average businessman is presently complaining that he /she cannot find someone to hire who can do basic math! Imagine, therefore, what legalized gambling will do to the mindset of an already incompetent work force? I guess one is left to conclude, who needs to know how to read or count when one only needs to be able to dream and have a couple dream books to interpret the corresponding numbers?

What leader — who wants to build the nation to excel in such a way that the world would "mark the manner of our [noble] bearing" (as we sing in our national anthem) — would attempt to build the nation on chance and luck, rather than industry and self-discipline? Worse, to add insult to injury, suggests that because we can't (or won't) enforce the law we should make it legal!

Our politicians (on both sides of the aisle) continue to fail this nation, offering measly short-term solutions (investors and big-time developments) rather than long-term nation building goals. There is no national will to deal with and take on the issues that are facing us. As I say over and repeatedly, we can't even fix the pot-cake problem (overabundance of stray dogs roaming our streets at all hours of the day and night) even though it is a major complaint of our tourists. This is not an FNM issue or a PLP issue! No constituent would complain, or feel slighted, yet still there is no political will to take even this on. Why?

But it is not just the politicians — we put too much stock in them anyway! It is the general public that seems satisfied, or at the very least apathetic to the state of things in the country, for there is no real public outcry! We ignore the brutally rape of a six year old girl, multiple reports of incest, youth killing themselves over trivialities (he sic-sic at my girl), reports of police brutality, mob violence and destruction of public property, graffiti, gang warfare, politicians fighting in the cabinet room, and the list goes on.

I put it to you that we are a people without discipline, industry, loyalty or an identity! We don't know who we are, or who we want to be. So we lurch around grabbing our values and our opinions from here and there, from this expert and that study. But it doesn't have to be. An identity has already been crafted for us — identified, crafted and stated publicly. We already have a mission statement as a nation. We just have to accept it and own it as a people.

The preamble to our constitution states that we believe that "the preservation of our freedoms "will be guaranteed by a national commitment to self-discipline, industry, loyalty, unity and an abiding respect for Christian values and the rule of law".

Do we truly believe that our freedoms as a sovereign nation will be guaranteed by these virtues or are they merely words written on a piece of paper that we intend to continue to ignore? Notice from whence the promise of our guaranteed freedoms come — a national commitment to self-discipline, to industry. But our duly elected prime minister, ignoring or oblivious to the preamble, would have us to adopt a national commitment to indiscipline, greed and luck.

I humbly suggest that the prime minister step out of the mold of what has passed for prime ministership in the past, and use his clout to call the people of The Bahamas to own their place in history — as a people that have left their piracy, ship-wrecking, gun-running, blockade-running, boot-legging, drug-running past, and forge a new identity as a disciplined, law abiding, law respecting, industrious people committed to Christian values and the rule of law. Then the world can truly mark the manner of our bearing.

P.S. — It is interesting to note that the same churches that the pro-gambling sect are attempting to vilify for restricting their right to gamble will be the churches that come to the aid of the families made destitute by their freedom to gamble. The question to keep foremost in everyone's mind is who is really seeking the public good — the gambling lobby or the Church? Who has the long track record for caring for the people of The Bahamas?

*11 reasons why legalizing gambling would be disastrous to our already troubled Bahamian society

* Gambling promotes a false value system of getting something for nothing!

* Gambling is a major discouragement of thrift — the wise use of money.

* Gambling thrives by the promotion of greed.

* Gambling is a temptation to weak-willed persons, who frequently develop an addiction to gambling.

* Gambling has brought about much family neglect, thus undermining the most important unit of society.

* Gambling is a hindrance to the development of a productive work ethic.

* Gambling fosters a wastage of money which could be used for productive purposes.

* Gambling promotes gains by a few at the expense of all the other players.

* Gambling leads to an increase in crime, since gamblers tend to engage in crime to obtain money to gamble.

* Gambling brings about the pauperisation of the gamblers, who often will have to resort to begging in order to gamble or just survive.

* Gambling can produce opportunities for illegal activity that can lead to corruption in the public and private sectors.