Web shop chiefs are secretly planning to cut expenses by laying off hundreds of web shop workers and replacing them with automatic lottery machines, according to industry insiders.
With 144 web shops operating in The Bahamas, bosses are concerend with the rise in taxes that might occur if playing numbers is made legal.
The secret layoff plan was discovered only days before the gambling poll (mistakenly called a referendum) when Bahamians will be asked to vote on whether to regulate and tax web shop gaming, and to establish a national lottery.
The plan also allegedly includes reducing the amounts paid to winners.
Web shop operators say it is time for the country to move away from tourism and banking, time to make web shop gaming the number pillar of our economy.
Attorney Branville McCartney, leader of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) party, believes the referendum process is ‘illegal’. He said yesterday he would vote against the legalisation of numbers.
“I have stated, and I would again emphasise, that the process that the Bahamian people are being asked to participate in on January 28 is not legal, is flawed and consequently the result will not be binding.
“On January 29, web shop gaming will still be illegal and there will still be no laws in the Bahamas governing a national lottery.”
Mr McCartney says that the government’s handling of the ‘referendum’ procedure had been “lacking, irresponsible and deceptive to the Bahamian people.”
According to Mr McCartney, The Bahamas is now perceived internationally as ‘inept.’
