Under the table payments to secure a casino licence in Bermuda wouldn’t be possible under Government’s gaming regulatory regime, Attorney General Mark Pettingill insisted last night before MPs.

“The checks and balances that we are ensuring going into place would not allow for that to happen,” Mr Pettingill maintained, as the two sides of the House of Assembly sparred in the wake of Progressive Labour Party leader Marc Bean’s assertion that Premier Craig Cannonier had told him a developer was willing to pay upfront for a gaming charter. “We know this thing has to be clean,” the Attorney General added.

He also said it would be “crazy” for Mr Cannonier to share a damning personal secret with the Opposition in any event.

“The leader of the Government would entrust information like that to the Opposition Leader, with the stuff he’s said about us from the beginning? He’s called us demons and practitioners of dark arts?”

He asked MPs if they believed the Premier would conclude “you know what, I know I can have a chat with Marc Bean and discuss with him a corrupt plan that I have in place”.

Mr Pettingill said the regulators of gaming in Bermuda would include a member of the Opposition — and that politics wouldn’t be able to taint the process.