Religious community says no to casino gambling as consultations begin By Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News
December 10, 2006

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The religious community in Guyana is opposed to casino gambling and has been saying so as the government begins consultations with stakeholders on the introduction of legislation for the operation of casinos.

Among the religious bodies voicing opposition are the Guyana Hindu Dharma Sabha, the Guyana Arya Samaj, the Guyana Council of Churches, the Guyana Evan-gelical Council and the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana.

Former PPP/C government minister Pandit Reepu Daman Persaud told Stabroek News that the Guyana Hindu Dharma Sabha was "opposed to gambling in any form, anywhere, anytime… It is not a matter of how I feel about gambling it is a matter of principle," he said.

Asked whether the Sabha had been consulted on the issue of casino gambling he said, "We have not had any consultations with the government on it."

President of the Guyana Arya Samaj Dr Ramesh Sugrim said that the Samaj had been invited to a meeting with Prime Minister Sam Hinds to discuss the issue of casino gambling. However, the Arya Samaj had not been represented at the meeting because of late notice.

Dr Sugrim said that his organisation was against casino gambling being introduced because it was a vice and a bad habit. He said that there were other areas of economic activity in which revenue could be earned and urged the government to encourage investment in areas where people could earn "clean money." He opined that most gamblers use money obtained illegally to finance their gambling habit.

On Friday, the Prime Minister's Personal Assistant Rajendra Bissessar confirmed that Hinds had begun consultation with religious bodies and other stakeholders on the issue.

Following the dedication ceremony of the stadium at Providence, East Bank Demerara, President Bharrat Jagdeo had said in response to a question from the media that the government was considering introducing casino legislation in time for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 matches which begin in March next year.

Asked about the status of the draft legislation and public consultations on the controversial issue, Minister of Tourism, Industry and Com-merce, Manniram Prashad told the Stabroek News on Thursday that "consultations would start very shortly" since it was an issue that the public was very concerned about. "We are going to meet with different groups… church groups and other stakeholders who might want to know about the status of the casino legislation."

He said there was "a draft that is being worked on. We are looking at it but we haven't made any decisions. At this point in time I cannot comment on what form it would take. That would depend on the consultations which would start very shortly." Though a draft legislation believed to be patterned on the Barbados model was said to be in the making and a model was distributed at a meeting held by businessman, Vic Oditt at Lethem in the Rupununi in December 2005, Stabroek News was unsuccessful in obtaining a copy of it.

Opposed to gambling in any form

Meanwhile, District Sup-erintendent of the Wesleyan Church and a member of the Guyana Evangelical Council Rev Eldon Anderson said that the evangelical branch of the Christian community was totally against gambling in any form, whether by lotteries, raffles or bingos and would welcome consultation on the issue.

As far as he was aware, he said, there had not been any consultation with the Guyana Evangelical Fellowship or the Georgetown Ministerial Fellowship or the churches that fall under the two governing bodies. "I am not aware that we have been asked to meet with the President or any government official to discuss this issue," he said.

President Bharrat Jagdeo met some members of the Christian community in February this year and they had strongly objected to casino gambling; the President had promised consultations.

It is believed in some quarters that the President has given a commitment to large hotel developers, including the investors of Buddy's International Hotel, that the government would enact casino legislation to justify their investment in the hotel and hospitality sectors.

Stating that the religious community in Guyana should be given the opportunity to discuss how the economy could be developed because economic development was tied to morals and values, Dr Anderson said: "our concept is that the Bible is a book that offers strategies for development and production."

He said while the government was concerned about economic gains, "we have to look at the wherewithal. What is being promoted at the national level would affect society and ultimately it could come down to the family level and it would have an effect at the personal level."

Asked about his views on the current lottery operated by Canadian Bank Note, he said, "In the first place we are not supportive of the lottery so we are not even discussing how the proceeds from the lottery should be spent.

"We should be given the opportunity to discuss how we develop the economy in an honest and productive manner outside those areas which would affect values, standards and morals in the society."

In the same manner that the government was promoting VAT (value added tax), he said, it should hold discussions with those institutions that promote the dignity of humanity and honesty of purpose to avoid corruption of morals which really undermine the spirit of honesty in economic development.

If government was looking at bringing more money into the country through casino gambling, he said, there might be some economic benefit but there were also going to be defects which would result in dangerous trends in society.

Stating that casino gambling would open the door to greed instead of prudent or honest investment, he said gambling was destructive especially since it promoted greed and it was a temptation to weak-willed persons who frequently develop an addiction to gambling. He opined that gambling hinders the development of a productive work ethic.

Moral conviction

Contacted on the issue, President of the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG) Fazeel Ferouz reiterated that the teachings of Islam are against gambling. He said the government should have the moral conviction to reconsider the issue of casino gambling since it would not meet the full approval of the entire Guyanese community and there needed to be countrywide consultation on the issue.

"We feel that it should be reconsidered; that the government should not go ahead with something that many people would not be in agreement with. Even if many people in Guyana decide on enforcing gambling legislation," he said, "Muslims would be against gambling. We're against all forms of gambling, whether it is a church bingo or church raffles or lotteries. The double standard is also within the religious community. You can't condemn gambling in the casinos and you have gambling in the church to raise funds for the church. You are encouraging your own congregation to gamble. We feel gambling is morally and religiously wrong according to our principles."

He said he was of the impression that President Jagdeo was considering moving ahead with the idea of enforcing legislation since he had brought up the issue with the Muslim leaders when he met them on "more than one occasion. He brought it up. We discussed it and we told him that we are against gambling. He said that it would not be available to Guyanese but to guests of these hotels and most of these guests would not be in the lower bracket and would be well-off people."

Noting the arguments put forward by some stakeholders in the tourism industry for casino gambling, Ferouz said, "we would encourage our people not to become involved and that's it."

Expressing disappointment with a recent release to the media in which the President said he was trying to enact the legislation in time for Cricket World Cup 2007, Ferouz said the CIOG felt the government should encourage other forms of investment in the tourism industry.

"We feel that Guyana has a lot to offer and that Guyana should be a role model in finding alternatives using the country's natural resources. Not because the Bahamas or the United States or other countries are boosting tourism through having casinos, we should do the same. We should explore other areas, perhaps, the natural beauty, including our hospitable and kind people that God has blessed our country with," he said.

"You hear of underworld type of people being associated with casinos. This is not good and healthy for the society."

Inherent risks

Contributing to the debate through the Letters to the Editor column, Roman Catholic Bishop Emeritus Benedict Singh, said the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches "these games [lotteries, raffles, bingos] are not inherently contrary to justice but can become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his or her needs and the needs of dependants. We are also warned that the passion for gambling risks becoming a form of enslavement. To these must be added concerns over games of chance becoming a conduit for illicit activity and organised crime."

He argued that "churches, social organizations, sports clubs and community associations, in fact a vast array of intermediary bodies within society, have all from time to time organised games of chance such as bingos and raffles in order to raise funds to fulfil some need. These games of chance are usually for specific purposes, of a short duration, do not promote addiction to gambling and allow for members of the community to contribute to some worthy cause."

He said that these must be contrasted with large-scale and entrenched forms of social gambling such as the establishment of casinos which were established mainly for private and commercial gain and which in fact could run afoul of promoting the common good within society. Legalized gambling carried inherent risks and therefore it was the duty of the civil authorities to carefully consider the consequences to the individual, to family life, social norms and public morality; and to weigh the expected benefits against the social cost of introducing casino gambling in Guyana.

Apart from the vulnerability of casino gambling to its penetration by organized crime and an instrument for illicit activities such as money laundering, Bishop Singh said: "no true development can emerge if the viability of our tourism product is dependent on the introduction of casinos. Where do we draw the line when it comes to making our tourism products viable? Will prostitution and other forms of sex-tourism be waiting in line to be legalized, under the pretext that these too are needed for the viability of the tourism sector? The legalization of casino gambling can also become the forerunner to the eventual licensing of a range of activities which are an affront to human dignity."

The suggestion to limit the negative effects of casino gambling by restricting casino gambling only to tourists, he considers as "offensive to national pride. If casino gambling is considered deleterious to the local population, it should be considered as inimical to the national interest and should not be pursued simply to accede to the desires of expatriates. 'Enclaves of sin' are undesirable and offending to the common good.

"We should all strive for humanistic tourism, one in which our folklore and culture are respected, where our hospitality is appreciated and where the bringing together of peoples from various countries leads to wholesome interactions, rather than degrading conduct that treats our people as objects and our country as a mere playground."

Safeguards

Voicing his concerns on the issue, tour operator and proprietor of Rockview Lodge at Annai, Rupununi, Colin Edwards recalled "the consultations [at the Savannah Inn] that we had earlier involving Mr Vic Oudit's plans for developing a casino at the LIDCO ranch of Pirara" and the concerns voiced as to "the lack of appropriateness of the idea within a vulnerable community such as ours." He said that as a member of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), he was aware of the role that casinos played in the tourism drive but was concerned that such development should be socially and economically justified and must be appropriate for the environment into which it was to be introduced.

He recalled venturing into a casino at Paramaribo, Suriname at a hotel that he stayed at. "I did not stay long being quite put off by the smoke and whole appearance of the place and the people in it… Personally I have many other more fulfilling ways of deriving pleasure and enjoyment." Edwards said that there were many forms of tourism to be developed that did not require depleting natural resources such as timber and mineral extraction.

Besides the Cricket World Cup 2007, he said, the tourism industry was pursuing birding and yachting drives besides a number of trump cards already being played - the Kaieteur Falls, Iwokrama conservation site, the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway, the Rupununi wetlands system with its lodges, ranches and villages; the resorts in the Essequibo and Demerara rivers.

Notwithstanding all this, however, he saw no reason why casino gambling should not be allowed once certain safeguards were in place to protect the interests of the patrons and the community at large from the adverse effects of gambling, he said these safeguards should be arrived at through proper consultation between the state, industry stakeholders and the public in order to ensure that the benefits predominate.

"I would have thought that a combination of it being open for guests of the hotel itself together with membership to a club would be the ideal so as not to deny Guyanese who feel [they should be allowed to gamble to] do so. In any case the overriding factors should be that the taxes levied by the state should justify the effort and that proper safeguards be put into place so as to protect vulnerable persons affected by addiction and causing social strife," he said.

The PNCR at its weekly pres briefing on Thursday reiterated that consultations on casino gambling should benefit from the widest possible involvement of the people so that legislation when enacted would truly reflect the needs and aspirations of Guyana.