A GUY'S VIEW

“Life is indeed a gamble, the ultimate game of chance, based purely upon having the ability to make the right choices at the right time. You never win or lose in life if you realise it is all just for the experience. Learn to create your own destiny, don’t wait to see what fate throws your way.”
– Steven Redhead, Keys to Creating Your Reality

According to press reports, it seems that the Minister of Tourism has made some tentative steps towards making gambling a feature of our tourism industry. At the time of writing I was still waiting for the rebuke which many expect to come for this decision.

The report indicates that visitors to the island will be able to gamble at their hotels, but this activity will not be available to Barbadians. There is also a restriction in relation to the currency of gaming, as only United States currency may be used.

This follows the usual pattern pursued elsewhere of providing visitors who may be fond of gaming with the opportunity to indulge their passion, while protecting persons in the host community from this indulgence. This approach is predicated on the view that gambling is harmful and could lead to deleterious consequences if local persons are exposed to it. This paternalism presupposes that local persons do not know what is best for them or that they are too weak to act wisely if a shiny object is displayed before them.

The evidence confirms that gambling may be addictive. I doubt that a study of Barbadians was conducted, but one has no reason to doubt that studies conducted elsewhere on this subject would be equally applicable to Barbados and Barbadians.

I knew a man, who has since departed this scene, who received his wages a Friday evening and proceeded directly to a gambling arcade. When he left he was only able to get home by borrowing bus fare. As difficult as that sounds, his was not a peculiar case, even if a little extreme. There are many persons who make a daily or weekly pilgrimage to arcades and show no signs of changing.

Contrary to what the unobservant may suppose, this is not a male dominated malady. Many females of middle age patronise arcades around the island. This has long been the case and there is no reason to doubt that this will continue.

Maybe it was considerations of this nature that informed the Minister’s approach to limiting access to gaming to visitors. This may be well intentioned, but look at what already exists. The proposed limitation only speaks to form but not substance. Gambling is already well entrenched in this country and one sees no real value in saying that local gamblers are free to play slot machines but cannot play blackjack. Both forms of gaming constitute gambling.

It may be argued that the stakes in one game may be higher than in the other, but owners of those establishments know how to regulate their business, and if a gamer is broke in ten minutes because his wagers are large, he is as broke as if he had spent five hours pulling one arm bandits.

The Barbados economy has always been lopsided. Regulation has often served to consolidate money making opportunities in the hands of a few people while protecting them from competition. This flies in the face of the capitalist ideals that many of us espouse. Wherever it is possible, we should open all aspects of economic activity to all Barbadians. For example, is there any good reason why the millions of dollars generated from lotteries in this country should be the reserve of an American entity?

In days of yore we were told that gambling was a sin, and we believed it because we chose to follow what others dictated and never read for ourselves or thought for ourselves. I suspect that there are many among us who still subscribe to that view.

Sin may no longer be the strongest argument against gambling, but other ideas which stem from the need to protect us, since we are weak
and do not know what is good for us, may be similarly grounded. Well, if any such argument is posited, we must rid ourselves of all forms of gambling. Such a proposal would now be considered unthinkable in 2019 Barbados, but there is no justification for a discriminatory approach.

And one is not sure why we should discriminate against our British friends and the British pound. Why put them to an additional step of converting their pound to dollars in order to play? One may think of a few reasons why the currency of choice is the US dollar, but consideration should be given to finding a way to open the currency to other nationalities.

The current regulations for gaming are strong and I am sure that our regulators are able to supervise other establishments of a new description without compromising the nation’s security with respect to money laundering and the financing of other nefarious activities. If the Minister is uncertain of this, he may sit down with them and discuss what they are capable of in this regard.

For certain, his announcement will attract the attention of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, but this should not be a deterrent. Barbados has nothing to hide where this is concerned and can pass any test.

Our gaming community came under tremendous stress not so long ago, but this may have been partially due to their own actions. If gambling is to be opened up, it should be done with accompanying rules that are non-negotiable. There is a way to permit this form of economic activity and still meet all international safety requirements.

Of course, there will always be some persons who would wish to run wild, choosing to be unregulated. That is not a problem. They would just not participate in the industry. The cowboy behaviour that may be tolerated in the United States and certain European countries would run Barbados in trouble. We must not fool ourselves into thinking that there is any level playing field anywhere. But we have, thus far, been less that wise to handcuff ourselves while in the ring in a global fight.

We may have stayed away from casino gambling owing to excessive carefulness or a lack of self-belief. Our economic circumstances may be telling us that we may no longer have that luxury. And if we are going in, we should go all the way. Sit down and formulate a way forward and go.

One is not advocating being foot-loose in our approach. We know that there is need for care. My view is that we are capable to charting a successful path without limiting ourselves in the ways that others have, just to avoid the criticism of those who have not given the most thorough thought to this exercise.