PM’s stance on gaming centres doesn’t add up

THE EDITOR: The Budget of 2004 placed a licence fee on Video Slot machines VLTs of $10,000 per unit (an increase from $2,000) resulting in an immediate outcry from the owners of the private members clubs sending their employees on talk shows and television to claim unfairness and loss of jobs. It is now five months after and not one private members club has been forced to close neither has any further furore been heard from the new charges. After all, the increase was a mere $30/per day per unit, an insignificant levy when compared to the revenue generated per day by these machines.

It was all a smoke screen for the owners to plead “unfairness” when they themselves are exploiting and monopolising the gaming public by being able to operate these slot centres virtually unregulated. There was also a great outcry about the Government’s involvement in the establishment of three National Slot Centres in Trinidad, consisting of the National Lotteries Control Board, the Betting Levy Board and Gtech Corp, an attempt by the Government for the first time to regulate this mushrooming multi-million dollar industry.

For such a major revenue earner, it was determined just like the National Lottery, that the Government should be pinnacle in establishing properly organised gaming centres to secure some of the revenues from this industry in order to:
1) support the local horse racing industry which has been clamouring for years for these centres to assist their industry and remove them from their continued dependence on the Government
2) support local sporting organisations by setting up a properly funded sports fund
3) to put in place a body to properly supervise and control the operations of Private Members Clubs and their VLTs who can take advantage of unsuspecting patrons by adjusting the payout percentages of these machines to their advantage. In addition, to bring much needed regulations to an industry that can bring many negatives to our social and national well being, if allowed to continue without strict controls and licensing.

The majority of the large private clubs are controlled by non Trinidadians, the profits from these unregulated establishments do not benefit the country as a whole other than creating some employment, with a significant amount of the profits going into these foreigners’ pockets.
Why has the Prime Minister stopped the introduction of the National Slot Centres established and recommended by Government institutions the NLCB and the Betting Levy Board where the profits are primarily for the national good. The local racing industry will receive the lifeline it has demanded for so long to propel its development into the 21st century and save an industry that employs 3,500 persons in Trinidad. Funds will now be available to finance many of our sporting organisations and institutions to the benefit of the country. What significant support does the country receive from these unregulated private members clubs and VLT centres?

The PM has been quoted as saying he has deferred the introduction of the National Slot Centres on “moral” grounds which is so contradictory. Gaming is well established in Trinidad and Tobago since the 1950s. Stopping the National Slot Centres on moral grounds is foolishness. You either stop all forms of gaming and gambling in Trinidad and Tobago if morality is the issue. How can the Prime Minister also accept an invitation to open a particular Japanese restaurant in the heart of Port-of-Spain whose owners are one of the biggest foreign VLT operators in Trinidad and Tobago? Something just doesn’t add up.

DAVID DARE
Maraval