The Casino Bill
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
January 21, 2007
ACCORDING to developments in the National Assembly on Friday, it seems that the stage has been set for passage of the controversial Gambling Prevention (Amendment) Bill to be enacted into the country's statute book.
In sharply contrasting views, while the government continues to emphasise a basic economic approach, with specific examples, the political opposition, including the PNCR-1G, has resorted to moral and religious arguments.
It would not have escaped attention that while some demonstrated with anti-gambling placards in front of Parliament Building during Friday's second reading of the bill, introduced by Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, President Bharrat Jagdeo was meeting with a delegation of representatives of the various religious communities -- Hindus, Muslim and Christian.
Naturally, the concerns of all stakeholders in a democratic state must be taken into consideration by a government; and both the President and Minister of Home Affairs have, separately, made clear their respect for the views of the country's religious leaders.
Following their requested meeting with President Jagdeo, Chairman of the Guyana Council of Churches, Rev. Alphonso Porter, said, as reported in our edition yesterday, quoting a GINA release, that:
"We (the delegation) expressed our deep concerns. The President did give some explanations we did not hear before...I understand they are looking at it from an investment point of view and while we say yes to investments, the social consequences cannot be ignored..."
Fair enough. The discussion appears to have underscored, with respect, the differing positions between a government's right to enact laws in the national interest, including casino gambling with restrictions, and the positions of the representatives of the country's multi-religious communities.
The stance being adopted by the parliamentary opposition, and the PNCR leader Robert Corbin, on the other hand, in playing the "religious card", may be politically expedient.
But independent observers, as well as supporters of that party, would be aware how amusing it was on Friday when theatrics were substituted in the National Assembly for informed arguments to counter the government's justification for moving ahead with the Bill.
In a number of countries within CARICOM, representatives of the religious communities have been consistent in objecting, on moral and religious grounds, to gambling but the slot machines and lotteries have kept mushrooming.
The Guyana Government, for its part, has an obligation to stay the course in minimising, if not altogether avoiding, involvement of Guyanese nationals in the casino gambling game as it seeks to use it as an instrument for economic gains.
We shall continue to follow the developments leading to expected passage of the casino bill and of the implementation processes to ensure compliance with its provisions.