NASSAU –The number of web shops in The Bahamas has “significantly diminished” over the last four years, Minister of Tourism Dionisio D’Aguilar said yesterday (May 6), the Nassau Guardian reported on May 7, in an article written by Travis Cartwright-Carroll.
There are currently 257 licensed locations in The Bahamas. In 2016, there were 375 licensed premises, and in 2014 there were 635 “declared premises”, according to data from the Gaming Board.
“As it relates to the location of gaming houses, there are some that are very close to schools and some that are very close to churches,” D’Aguilar said. “Now, in the instances where they have already been built and developed, it’s kind of hard to put that genie back in the bottle. I mean, if they were granted permission to go ahead and build these houses near schools and churches, while I may disagree that they should have been built, the fact is they were provided with permission and have [been] built. They are operational and they are working.”
While he was unable to state how many web shops are near schools, churches and residential areas, the minister said the operators received permission to build under the previous Christie administration to build.
He explained that the current government, “which is a continuous body” that “went ahead and granted them permission to build these places,” can’t now say, “Hey, we should never have given you permission to do that…”
“But certainly for new ones, before they are built and before they are constructed, we should ensure they meet that requirement, that zoning requirement, before permission is given to them to go ahead to construct,” D’Aguilar said.
