Faced with a mushrooming of gambling machines throughout the Island, one of the Progressive Labour Party's earliest decisions after gaining power was to develop a compromise solution on gambling.

Then-Premier Jennifer Smith announced in 1999 that the machines would be outlawed as of this year. In the meantime, the existing machines would be "grandfathered" until the deadline occurred.

There were good legal reasons for this. Had the Government banned the machines without compensation, it may have faced lawsuits by the owners, who had installed them with the understanding that they were legal.

By giving the owners five years to operate, that problem would be eliminated. At the same time, the policy said no new machines were to be brought in, nor were the machines to be repaired with imported parts.

Now, with the deadline occurring on July 1, this newspaper's longstanding calls for a full review on the Island's policy on gambling continue to fall on deaf ears.

In the meantime, those who face the ban are coming up with ever-more ingenious ways to skirt it, including cruises to nowhere for residents and visitors, machines which do not pay out money, and, apparently, offshore-registered websites.

One of the problems is that the Government itself is more divided on the issue than ever. Tourism Minister Renee Webb is in favour of casino gambling as a way to rejuvenate tourism. Several other Ministers are also said to support it.

Gambling's risks have been well described in the past. In summary, those most likely to lose ? and everyone loses in the end ? are those who can least afford it, while gambling addiction can be as destructive to individuals and their families as drugs or alcohol.

Gambling's supporters include those who would like to decide for themselves how to spend their money and those who see casinos ? at which residents could be banned ? as a key part of any rescue of the tourism industry.

This decades-long debate has become more complex with the introduction of Internet gambling, which is almost impossible to police. Given that the main legislation covering gambling ? the Lotteries Act ? is 60 years old, it cannot possibly regulate modern gaming.

Then too, the success of Government-run lotteries overseas, either as revenue raisers or as supports for charities, sports and other good causes, means that this should be seriously considered as well.

All of these points have been raised again and again. But the Government, which must make a decision ? any decision ? in the end, remains conspicuously silent on the issue.

That may be because it thinks the whole problem will resolve itself when the machines are grandfathered out later this year. But that is clearly nonsense. What will happen is one form of supposedly legal gambling will be replaced by another.

Or it may be that the Cabinet is so hopelessly divided on the question, and so hamstrung over the support it receives from anti-gambling fundamentalist churches that it would rather allow the status quo to linger on.

But good government demands that Premier Alex Scott should, as a matter of urgency, form a commission or set up a Cabinet committee to examine the whole issue and come up with recommendations for new policies and legislation on gambling that will give the whole Island guidance for the next few decades.