The Bermuda Chamber of Commerce has admitted its surprise and expressed its concern that the cruise ship gaming bill was defeated in Parliament last week.

The bill, which would have allowed cruise ships to open their casinos while in port at night, was rejected by 18 votes to 11 in the House of Assembly on Friday after Premier Ewart Brown attempted to push it through despite initially pledging to shelve it until November at the earliest.

Despite opposition from church groups and politicians on both sides, the bill had support in the business community and Chamber of Commerce president Stephen Todd was the first to admit that the Chamber was taken aback both by the sudden change in the timing of the legislation and its failure to be passed.

"We were surprised that it proceeded and then failed in its attempt to be passed," he said.

"We believe that there could be long-term implications of the failure of the bill and the position that the cruise ship companies will take because they have gone on record to say that part of the cruise ship experience to Bermuda was the ability to offer gaming to their customers at a time when it would not have a negative impact on the Island's infrastructure as we know it, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m."

Mr. Todd said the Chamber's main concern over the rejection of the bill was for the retail sector, in particular the restaurant trade, who might have relied on business from the cruise ship passengers and crew using such facilities. "The question will really be how this moves forward," he said.

"It may have to be amended or rewritten at a future date."

Kirby Brackstone, chairman of the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce's East End Division and co-owner of Bermuda Perfumery in St. George's, said the tourism industry had bigger priorities than gambling to address in order to improve itself.

He said that St. George's only had a small number of cruise ships visiting, with the Norwegian Majesty vessel this season and the Holland America set to spend half of its time docked in the port and the other half in Hamilton next year, and reckoned the defeat of the bill would have little impact on business in the town.

"It may be a little bit more difficult to entice potential boats to come to Bermuda," he said.

"My personal view is that I never thought it was going to be the 'silver bullet' that solved everything.

"I think that on the top 100 things that are wrong with Bermuda tourism, gambling and casinos are probably halfway down the list of things to improve the product."

Mr. Brackstone said the issue of gambling had not been brought up regularly by his Division and pointed out that Norwegian Cruise Line had signed a 10-year contract to send its cruise ships to the Island and was not set to pull the plug on that just because gambling was not allowed.

"It is a nice add-on, but at the end of the day, we have to be doing things a little differently to what we are doing currently," he said.

"It is all about service and value and until we get those things lined up we can start thinking about other issues."

Cheryl Hayward-Chew, president of Meyer-Franklin Travel, said the failure of the bill would result in Hamilton and St. George's missing out on a much-needed smaller ship to their ports.

"After-hours on-board gambling on cruise ships docked in Bermuda would make the island more attractive to the cruise lines as it gives them a source of income that is comparable to what they can generate sailing to other destinations," she said.

"As Hamilton and St. George's work towards bringing a smaller ship to their ports, the passing of this bill would have likely been an attractive incentive.

"So, the fact that the bill did not pass on Friday means that we may have lost a much-needed smaller ship for one of these ports. It is disappointing."