(EDITOR’S NOTE: Given a resurgence of the debate on what numbers houses that are “raking in” millions of dollars since the “numbers game” was legalized, I decided to rerun this OSWALD BROWN WRITES column that was published in BAHAMAS CHRONICLE on June 6, 2018.)
OSWALD BROWN WRITES
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As someone who has been playing numbers regularly from the late 1950s, when Percy Munnings and Talbot “Stokes” Thompson were the two major “illegal” numbers operators in New Providence, I was a strong supporter of the legalization of the numbers game in The Bahamas because I was convinced that it was virtually impossible for the Government to shut them down.
When the former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government finally “gave in” to the well-organized campaigns by pro-legalization proponents, no one envisaged that this new industry would so rapidly become the behemoth it currently is. The jury is still out on the reasons why numbers houses have become so popular since legislation sanctioning them was passed in the House of Assembly in 2014, but in my view, unquestionably, the principal reason is that gambling is an infectious disease among a huge segment of the Bahamian population.
This surely is one of the reasons why the late Sir Stafford Sands and the former United Bahamian Party (UBP) government passed legislation banning Bahamians from gambling in casinos when casino gambling was introduced in our hotels. The real reason for this action by the UBP, of course, was racist to the core. The UBP vehemently did not want black Bahamians to routinely be able to shoot dice or play blackjack side-by-side with white patrons in our casinos because they believed this would not be good for the country’s tourism industry.
So, they propagated the theory that black Bahamians were not responsible enough to manage their income and would gamble away their entire paycheques, thus Bahamian families would suffer. It is somewhat ironic that casino-style gambling in a big way is now a reality among “natives” in the web shop casinos, but it is still officially illegal for them to gamble in the big casinos in our hotels. In the meantime, owners of web shop casinos have amassed considerable wealth in a relatively short period of time and are now enjoying nouveau riche lifestyles.
I am among those who share the point of view that it was a huge mistake that former Prime Minister Perry Christie’s administration did not see the wisdom in putting in place stricter regulations to control the kind of proliferation that has taken place in the numbers industry that has transformed some devoted churchgoers into gambling addicts, including many genuinely religious, God-fearing women who once considered gambling to be a sin. Without proper regulations, mini-casinos now proliferate the landscape of New Providence and some of these regular churchgoers spend a good deal of time on a daily basis gambling away their Sunday-morning tithes. What is even more troubling to me is that numbers operations on some of our Family Islands have had an extremely deleterious impact on residents of these communities.
Having expressed this troubling observation, I think the current Government has embarked on a foolhardy venture if it thinks it can “stuff the genie back into the bottle” by imposing heavy taxes on the existing operations. The way businesses of this nature work is that these new taxes will be passed on to the consumers in one way or the other, and more likely that not result in smaller payouts, especially to winners of the daily PICK-3 and PICK-4 games.
There is also the possibility that some of the smaller operations may decide to revert to doing business “underground” as illegal operations and pay no taxes at all. One of the major numbers czars in the country — Craig Flowers, CEO of the FML Group of Companies — seemed to allude to this likelihood during an interview on “ON POINT,” a talk show on LOVE-97 radio station in Nassau on June 4.
Flowers described the government’s proposed increase in taxes for gaming house operators is a “death warrant” for the industry, according to an article in the Nassau Guardian, and admitted that while FML has “deep pockets,” it will be “almost impossible” for his company to continue operating if taxes are increased.
The same, of course, may not be true for FML’s leading competitor, ISLAND LUCK, whose principal owners seem to have “deeper pockets” than Flowers. They have skillfully diversified their business holdings and now own a growing Media Group, including ILTV Studios that produces a very professional EYEWITNESS NEWS and has two popular, gritty talk show hosts in Ortland H. Bodie Jr. and Rodney Moncur.
Only time will tell what impact the “sliding scale” of tax rates on numbers houses proposed recently by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest will have on the numbers houses, but I happen to know Deputy Prime Minister Turnquest very well. He is a Past-President of the Rotary Club of Lucaya, in which I was a member when I was Editor of the Freeport News and I lived in Grand Bahama. He is a well-trained chartered accountant, who is very prudent on financial matters, so I suspect that he was able to convince his Cabinet colleagues to support his new taxes proposal with sound financial arguments.
What’s more, in the political firmament of the FNM leadership galaxy, DPM Turnquest is a brightly shining star, and we shall just have to wait and see what will be the outcome of his proposed taxes on web shop operations
