Human rights body calls on govt to drop casino bill
Stabroek News
January 17, 2007
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) yesterday called on the Guyana government to withdraw the Casino Gambling Bill, declaring that the assertion that Guyana's nascent tourist industry, aimed at eco-tourists, stands to benefit from casinos is nonsense.
The human rights body in a press release from its Executive Committee argued that: "The fundamental objection to the Bill is not that it seeks to license a hotel for the entertainment of cricket followers, but that it expands the acceptability of a concept of personal and national development and progress which is illusory and repugnant to the majority of Guyanese."
The GHRA is also recommending that Guyanese citizens take note of how individual Members of Parliament vote on this matter. In the interests of good governance, the GHRA stated, "herd-like adherence to the voice of the party leaders on every issue must be seen as a thing of the past. The lazy anonymity which our parliamentary system encourages has been a convenient shield for too long. This Bill provides an ideal opportunity for MPs to act responsibly and in the national interest without putting their party at risk."
The offensive to introduce and legalise casino gambling, the GHRA noted, is government-led rather than by popular or sectoral demand. Even the sector most quoted as the beneficiary of this initiative, namely tourism, has pointedly distanced itself from the Bill, the release stated.
According to the GHRA, the only logical explanation for the current Bill is that "casino gambling flourishes in economies fuelled by high levels of organized crime, as in such places as Macau and pre-revolutionary Cuba. In the context of lax monetary and tax regimes, high levels of smuggling, and poor regulation of financial transfers, casinos are primarily laundries."
The human rights body also contended that "all of these disreputable features of the Guyana economy were well ventilated over the past twelve months by reputable international bodies in connection with drug trafficking in Guyana."
Solid popular resistance
"In our case," the GHRA observed, "while the most vocal opposition has come from the religious sector, majority opinion against casinos is prompted more by fears that it represents another step in consolidating economic control by illegal enterprise. There is solid popular resistance in Guyana to expansion of gambling opportunities."
According to the GHRA, surveys in other countries have shown majorities as high as 95 per cent of the public against the expansion of gambling opportunities by casinos and slot machines.
In addition to the longstanding association of organized crime with casino gaming, the GHRA contended, the aggressive new breed of global entrepreneurs encouraged by deregulation of every kind, pose a serious threat to any attempt to regulate local casinos.
And according to the human rights body, "no amount of assurances could convince Guyanese that casinos would not spawn activities 'for the entire family', grooming new generations of gamblers."
The release said too that a recent report by the UK's Metropolitan Police Gaming Unit highlights similar concerns over the new breed of casinos about to be legalized.
They risk: "increasing antisocial behaviour . . . increasing organized crime and money laundering; and increasing access to gambling for children and vulnerable groups. . . . Excessive drinking and gambling are a poor combination . . . with corresponding antisocial behaviour problems. . . increase access to gambling for children and vulnerable groups."
"And if the police in the UK with the wealth of resources and experience at their disposal express such misgivings," GHRA questioned "how can Guyanese have any confidence in our capacity to regulate and control gambling?"
The GHRA said further that the fact that the original intention - of fashioning a Bill to allow only one hotel to meet the requirements for a casino licence - had to be abandoned illustrates perfectly how future efforts at regulation will fare. "Market forces, not regulations, are the motor force driving all major illegal economic activity: arms sales, drugs, pornography, trafficking and gambling," the human rights body stated.
The GHRA also posited that in a "society such as Guyana in which a large portion of the population is stressed to make ends meet economically, the attraction of instant opportunities to get rich are powerful.
The general lawlessness of life in Guyana for several decades has eroded the link between hard work, thrift and prosperity."