CARIBBEAN: Casino gambling back on national agendas

BRIDGETOWN, Nov 10 (IPS) - The long-standing and controversial issue of casino gambling is once again taking centre stage in discussions in several Caribbean islands, with those opposing its introduction just as vocal as those supporting it.

In the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados, the debate has become so intense in the last month that Prime Minister, Owen Arthur has decided that government will take decision on the matter by next year March.

"I will establish a commission which would invite the public to make presentations before it in open hearings," Arthur says.

The commission is to be established by the end of this month.

But if Arthur's promise sounds positive, the growing opposition to the introduction of casino in this Caribbean island is also an issue which government will have to deal with.

"We will be mounting a major campaign in this country, between now and March, and I think that the commission which the prime minister will be presented with is the people of Barbados -- that very, very large moral majority who do not wish to see this country polluted with casino gambling," says Dr. Ritchie Haynes, leader of the minority parliamentary opposition, the National Democratic party.

But in the U.S. Virgin Islands, residents this week voted overwhelmingly in a referendum in favour of the introduction of casino gambling into the country.

While the business sector sees this measure as the solution to the country's economic woes, church leaders are unwavering in their opposition to its introduction.

Many feel that casino gambling will mean moral decay for the nation. Their colleagues in other islands agree.

According to Barbadian Jerry Seale of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the West Indies, who successfully coordinated campaigns in the past against gambling, studies show that corruption, organised crime, illegal drugs and alcohol abuse, as well as prostitution follow casino gambling.

"Barbados is far too small and with too limited governmental resources to invite these kinds of problems to our shores in any greater measure than they already exist," he says.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service