May 30, 2014

Dear Sir,

I was mildly amused to see people marching and urging people to have a referendum on gaming. Having a casino here is no panacea to prosperity. Paradise Island which has a magnificent facility and a longer tourist season is giving away their rooms and has lost billions of dollars. They are only 35 minutes from Florida and they have many flights a day which are much cheaper than the flights to Bermuda.

People come to islands for sun and sand and if there is a casino, they will go into it but they don’t come to an island to gamble when there are many cities where they can go to quickly, and more cheaply. Serious gamblers like big casinos which cater to thousands of clients and big payouts. Casinos mostly employ foreigners as croupiers and casino managers, so they will bring some jobs but not that many.

We need to seriously make a search for some new industries to employ those who are underemployed and if we build more hotels we need bigger hotels not boutiques, and well known chains who can be depended upon to follow through.

Not a high roller