by Edward Hutcheson
Has the Attorney General met with the local banks and gotten their position on what will happen if the Web Shops are regulated? She seems to be of the opinion that the regulatory framework will be acceptable to the banking community. She has also indicated that there will be penalties applied to those web shops that have been operating illegally in the last decade or so. The tenor of her recent statement strongly suggests that the banking community will fall in line, I am wary. The Attorney General may know something that I don’t, but there is such a thing as “too much money”.
(June 30, 2014) A lot of the cards have been turned up on the “table” with the description of what is in the “Gaming bill” and it seems like the key players have reached an accord on how they want the market to be segmented; but no one has heeded what the Banks and the Central Bank have been telling been the Prime Minister for almost a year. Is the Attorney General ignorant of the fact that there is a profile issue with the “proceeds” that come from out local webshop businesses?
Perhaps it was in the best interest of the country that this situation was allowed to escalate. The Government is now at a place where they will have to be in compliance with the international stakeholders in the banking community. I have heard grievances that liken this situation to previous ones where certain “other Bahamians” made their money through other nefarious methods, and this current situation is seen as one in which the same thing can be done. There may be an argument here but the process of making our “numbers industry” legal will be an exercise in frustration for some who want things done in a hurry.
If I were to make a prediction, I would say that the Gaming Bill is going to be on the shelf for a while and when it is taken down again it will be scrapped or major revisions made to it. As it stands now there will be a lot of legal challenges if the government attempts to enact it in its present form; especially with what seems like Bahamians being legislated into a “second class citizenry” classification. There is another “little something” that may cause the biggest uproar and I do not know how those who have made promises are going to deal with it. Before any Gaming legislation is enacted, even before VAT is enacted the Government and those who hold political office will all find themselves in the same room. It will be a small room with only one exit door and over the door will be two headings, FOIA and Public Disclosure. Our situation is such that those who lead us have not been too ready to speak about their finances or disclose them, even though they are required to do so under the law. The problem is not the proceeds of gambling, we have a transparency issue where politicians have promoted the perception that they are being controlled or influenced by an industry that is seen as illegal. I believe that this will be at the heart of the news that the Attorney General gives to the Minister of Finance, if the news has not already been delivered. Any way we look at it, it is going to be a long hot Summer for the politicians, a Summer that will end with Government taking us on another ride towards a national lottery. If a Government keeps busy, there are less questions to answer.
June 30, 2014
