{"id":30716,"date":"2013-01-25T09:20:41","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T14:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=30716"},"modified":"2013-01-25T09:20:41","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T14:20:41","slug":"gaming-face-off-in-the-bahamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/01\/gaming-face-off-in-the-bahamas","title":{"rendered":"Gaming Face-Off In The Bahamas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-30717\" title=\"dave-simonds-cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dave-simonds-cartoon.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" height=\"313\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dave-simonds-cartoon.jpg 290w, https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dave-simonds-cartoon-138x150.jpg 138w, https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dave-simonds-cartoon-231x250.jpg 231w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/>The casino at the smart Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas is bigger than 20 tennis courts. Tourists flit from slot machine to roulette table, drift past Temples of the Sun and Moon and walk by Crystal Gate and Poseidon\u2019s Throne. But the only Bahamians in sight are waiters, croupiers and cashiers.<\/p>\n<p>The Bahamas legalised casino gambling in 1969, when they were still a British colony. But mainly because of the influence of local pastors, both Bahamians and foreigners who live in the country are banned from gambling.<\/p>\n<p>The well-funded campaign supporting the initiative has been distributing posters and T-shirts. It argues that web shops account for almost 2% of jobs in the country, and that gambling taxes could help close the budget deficit. The \u201cno\u201d movement, which calls itself \u201cSave Our Bahamas\u201d, is led by the islands\u2019 evangelical churches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The well-funded &#8220;Vote Yes&#8221; campaign argues that web shops account for almost 2% of jobs and gambling taxes could ease the budget deficit. The \u201cno\u201d movement is led by the islands\u2019 churches. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"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":[5],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-30716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30716","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\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}