I’ve never been to Vegas, unlike perhaps thousands of my fellow Bermudians. Although I have a cousin who loves it so much she recently got married there. Nor have I been to Atlantic City.I suspect you’ve guessed by now that I am not the gambling type. Or maybe I should use the new-fangled word “gaming”, as in: I’m not the gaming type.It wasn’t always this way. As a teenager and young adult, I vividly remember the various cup matches and county games when I would be home from college on vacation and the times when my friends and me, would avidly play the Crown & Anchor boards.That was until my father, who ran a Crown & Anchor table for decades at those venues, let me on to a little secret: ”Rolfe”, he would say, “the house always wins”.I still hear his words today: “The house always wins.” In truth, the house doesn’t always win, unless of course the house happens to be running a Crown & Anchor table.Only years later did I realise that the odds on that particular game of chance are so outrageously in favour of the house that in almost every jurisdiction, no reputable casino would dare feature our beloved Crown & Anchor, upon risk of prosecution.There are many stories, down through the years of the odd Crown & Anchor operator that lost his shirt. But more often than not; well, I think you get the idea…That is why my advocacy for a Bermuda-based gaming industry is not reflective of someone who is a big fan of gaming or the industry itself, notwithstanding the better odds offered by most casinos. I was cured of my habit years ago. Thanks, Dad.I am just someone who has come to the conclusion, after weighing the various pros and cons, that Bermuda’s tourism product and our economy desperately needs the investment shot in the arm that gaming could provide.For me, the issue of gaming is nothing more; nothing less, than an economic one.Developer Andrew Green, who along with his family recently purchased the Hamilton Princess, said it best in a recent interview in this paper, “Certainly a casino will create new revenue streams”. He further noted that one study had found that approximately 30 percent of tourists indicated that gaming is something Bermuda should provide. Certainly for the consumer then, it is really about choice.In Green’s view, we should not ignore the signals coming from the marketplace, especially in the midst of the “great recession”.Similarly, former Premiers Sir John Swan and Dr Ewart Brown who expended considerable political capital on this issue have been strong proponents of gaming and casinos for Bermuda over the years; and largely for the same reasons.We need two strong pillars to our economy and for over two decades that has not been the case as our international business sector has grown tremendously, while the structural decline of tourism has never really abated.Too many of us ignored that reality during those International business fuelled go-go years, when Bermuda’s economy experienced real growth of between three to five percent per annum.Is gaming a panacea for our economic woes? No. But it will allow us, and more specifically, key developers in the hospitality sector, to secure the necessary investment dollars needed to spur their major, high end development plans.Nelson Hunt and his partners at Morgan’s Point would, I am sure, welcome the ability to purchase a prospective “licence” to operate a casino in Bermuda, along with others, while maintaining Bermudian control of the overall development.However, the real game changer for me is jobs. We must begin to generate not only additional jobs at the high end, as in the international business sector; but also foster a renewed growth in jobs, in our construction sector. These pending development projects in the hospitality industry, will undoubtedly accomplish that.They will also generate in the mid to long term good jobs, across a range of categories including in the technical and/or vocational areas, that will offer a liveable wage for those young Bermudians without a four-year college degree.A revitalised hotel and more broadly a tourism industry can provide those jobs. It should be clear to most Bermudians that we will not be able to maintain the degree of social stability that we have taken for granted, up until very recently, without that precondition being met.The best social welfare system and the best anti-crime initiative ever devised is a growing economy, with good jobs at every level of that economy.The Government, to its credit, does intend to move forward on this issue by way of a referendum, and from where I sit, should do so as soon as practicable and allow the Bermudian people in its collective wisdom to do the rest.