Increased pressure is being put on Government to set up a lottery that would give Bermuda's athletes a sporting chance.

The call for a lottery is not a new one, but now those who believe it is a must for the Island are banding together in the hope that they will be taken seriously by the Progressive Labour Party.

Ian Gordon, president of the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association, said he believed he had the answer to those, mainly among the religious lobby, who said such a thing was immoral.

"There have been a number of meetings of the governing bodies of sports over the last 12 months with regard to the idea of establishing a National Lottery for sports, primarily to assist with the completion of the National Sports Centre," Gordon said. "My own view is that this lottery could be expanded to include sports, the arts and the acquisition of open space - three elements were the community of Bermuda could basically invest in themselves."

Addressing the concerns of those who were against a lottery, Gordon said: "There are issues as to: Is it gambling or is it not gambling?" he said. "My view is that you make it an ethical or a moral lottery where the payout is not so much in the way of lump sum cash prizes, but is in the form of capital repayments against the principal of a mortgage; lump sum payment towards a pension plan, something of that nature."

Part of the proceeds would then be put to use within the community, he said.

"This way we have the opportunity for the community to help itself," Gordon said. "It's a little distressing when we look at Bermuda, which has one of the highest per capital incomes in the world, something we take great pride in, and yet when it comes to issues of sports, sporting excellence, arts etc, we have some serious shortfalls.

"If you look at the Caribbean and Central American area with regard to sports, places like Belize, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, St. Lucia, all have far superior sports facilities to those which exist in Bermuda, and these are countries which are deemed to be Third World countries and probably rank at the bottom of the ladder in terms of per capita income.

"But their governments have made it a priority to invest in these facilities as a means of addressing some of the social issues in their countries, issues which are not unrelated to those we have to address in Bermuda."

Gordon said a lottery presented an opportunity for the community to `take ownership' of some of the issues and `take pride in the facilities' they had.

"At the same time in the form of prizes, it can assist in addressing areas where there are undoubtedly shortfalls in the community, such as pension plans, mortgages etc," he said.

Gordon said he did not believe it was a `political issue' and would not say whether he felt it would receive a better or worse reception from the PLP than it might from the UBP.

"I actually think it's an issue that goes beyond party politics," he said. "Neither Government has given the Sports Centre, for example, a priority. So I don't think it's a political football, it's a social and community issue."

Gordon said he had offered to put together a paper on the subject for the other governing bodies to subscribe to if they agreed.

"It's just a matter of finding the time to do all these things but I am actually working on it at the moment," he said.

Gordon said a lottery would be invaluable to swimming.

"We would love to see a 50 metre pool in Bermuda and the lottery is one avenue which would help to provide this facility sooner rather than later," he said. "I think also the lottery is a means of making more funds available for Elite Athlete programmes to fund overseas trips for swimmers, athletes, whichever sport it happens to be.

"That would certainly be something that would be very helpful. It's very expensive to send swimmers to training camps overseas to acquire the coaching and the facilities, so there are many ways this could benefit sports and the community at large."