{"id":29287,"date":"2012-12-13T10:06:36","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T15:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=29287"},"modified":"2012-12-13T10:06:36","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T15:06:36","slug":"pastors-prizes-intended-to-sway-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2012\/12\/pastors-prizes-intended-to-sway-voters","title":{"rendered":"Pastors: Prizes Intended To Sway Voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>People who play numbers will get a chance to win more than just money this Christmas.<\/p>\n

Some numbers bosses are offering houses, cars and other grand prizes.<\/p>\n

But Pastor Mario Moxey of Bahamas Harvest Church and Pastor Lyall Bethel of Grace Community Church said they think the numbers bosses are attempting to gain support.<\/p>\n

But a former numbers house executive dismissed claims of bribery yesterday.<\/p>\n

However, the pastors said it\u2019s no coincidence that the grand offerings have come ahead of next month\u2019s referendum on gambling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Bahamian people see through their gimmick and see it just as a gimmick,\u201d Moxey said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to buy votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one sense it\u2019s their attempt to relay to the general public that they are good samaritans, when in fact they are trying to legitimize a behavior that most Bahamians see as immoral.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nassau Guardian reported previously that the number houses are sweetening the pot.<\/p>\n

According to Levin Wilson, a former executive at Asue Draw, at least four major web cafes are now offering grand
\nprizes.<\/p>\n

He said one numbers house is offering a house and another is offering several prizes, including cash of up to $1 million, a house and a car.<\/p>\n

According to Wilson, another is offering cash and cars, and another major numbers house will raffle cars.<\/p>\n

He explained that once someone purchases a number for a minimum of $5, the person\u2019s name is entered into a bag for a chance to win a grand prize.<\/p>\n

Wilson said individual numbers houses will draw the winning names on separate days.<\/p>\n

“It’s a very competitive market,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd everyone is trying to come up with ways to increase market share.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the reason the web cafes are doing this at this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they wanted to buy votes, why wouldn\u2019t they just use the cash and get more mileage on the money? It doesn\u2019t make sense for them to spend $250,000 on a house for one person when they can share that among a lot of people. That just doesn\u2019t make sense. Think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last several years the market has been saturated with web cafes.<\/p>\n

Even with the grand prizes, Pastor Moxey said he thinks the referendum will fail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it will have an effect on the votes,\u201d he said. \u201cOn referendum day, they will vote on their conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meantime, the \u201cvote yes” campaign is gathering steam with several television and radio ads being played in heavy rotation.<\/p>\n

Moxey said the \u201cSave The Bahamas\u201d campaign, which is headed by the Bahamas Christian Council, also has major support and will gain more traction in the new year.<\/p>\n

The referendum will be held on January 28.<\/p>\n

By Krystel Rolle <\/span><\/em>
\nGuardian Staff Reporter <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People who play numbers will get a chance to win more than just money this Christmas since some numbers bosses are offering houses, cars and other grand prizes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[636],"class_list":["post-29287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-gambling-referendum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}