Casino Bill ‘inexcusable hypocrisy'
• GCC

Kaieteur News
January 19, 2007

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Head of the Guyana Council of Churches, Alphonso Porter described as ‘inexcusable hypocrisy', the fact that the proposed gambling legislation does not contain any provision for the conditionality touted by President Bharrat Jagdeo which will prohibit locals from using the casinos.

Porter noted, yesterday, that despite all the promises from the president, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and a number of other Government functionaries in support of the Bill, there are absolutely no provisions in the document to support these claims.

He noted that nowhere in the proposed legislation states that Guyanese nationals are prevented or restricted from gambling.

“The proposed legislation provides that only workers and ‘paying guests …in a room' at the four-star hotel or resort complex may be admitted to the casinos.

“Does that mean that if a Guyanese is registered as a paying guest or works at the hotel he can participate?”

Porter noted that even though the religious community has communicated these observations to Government, no answer has been forthcoming.

Commenting on the promises that the system will be closely monitored, Porter questioned whether this is possible, considering the fact that the police and the judicial system have failed to effectively enforce other restrictive laws in the country.

He stressed the notion that the suggestion that casinos may be located in the country for tourist gamblers can only be compared to implanting a cancerous cell in the body on the pretext that it can be isolated from the other cells and will not contaminate them.

Porter noted that the introduction of casino gambling or the extension of any existing form of gambling will be morally, harmfully and economically destructive, socially intolerable and a serious disfigurement of the national heritage.

Meanwhile, even as the Bill sees its second reading today, and from all indications will be passed, Porter remains optimistic of a withdrawal of the Bill.

He posited that the power of prayer should never be underestimated.

• Over the last two days the Christian community has been conducting a prayer vigil against the passing of gaming legislation.