OBA: Progress of Casino Commission At A Halt

February 20, 2019

[Updated] “The progress of the Casino Gaming Commission has ground to a halt – yielding neither jobs for Bermudians or revenue for our debt-stricken economy,” OBA Senate spokesperson for Tourism and Transport Dwayne Robinson said.

Senator Robinson said, “The Commission has been riddled with high profile resignations, with the most recent being Miss Deborah Blakeney. What is this Government’s plan for gaming, and does it even have a future? When will Bermudians be informed about the future of casino gaming in our country and when will there be the employment opportunities that are desperately needed?

“The political interference by the former Minister has caused the demise of gaming. He has since been shifted from Minister of Economic Development and Tourism to the Minister of Spin, and since that ministerial change we have heard nothing further from the Government on gaming, or the Finance Minister, under whose purview gaming now falls.

“Government has now declared it will no longer be funding the Commission and told them to seek funding elsewhere. But how can a Commission self-fund when there are no casinos and no licensing fees? There is absolutely no industry for the CGC to support itself.

“The people of Bermuda deserve a viable strategy with a realistic plan for casino gaming and the CGC. The Government cannot simply meddle with legislation and then let the ‘chips fall where they may’.”

Update 1.14pm: In response, the Ministry of Finance said, “The Ministry of Finance will provide an update on the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission in due course.”

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Comments (27)

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  1. aceboy says:

    Step one, repeal the legislation that the former minister had passed giving him control.

    No organization will invest or be involved in gaming in Bermuda unless this is done.

    Very simple.

    But I guess that might mean having to admit that at a minimum a mistake was made, so I won’t hold my breath.

    More millions flushed down the drain.

    • red rose says:

      another opportunity wasted by this government …. sigh

      • Black Soil says:

        All of the PLP need to resign.

        • Onion Juice says:

          Where was this bie when OBA were doing a pack, very promising Surrogate I must say.

          • Question says:

            Your use of the word ‘surrogate’ is clear racism. When you have no other arguments, that’s all you have. Hatred and racism. You are nasty, nasty people. Sickening.

          • Mike Hind says:

            Still pushing the “Surrogate” nonsense?
            The spray paint fumes are starting to affect you…

      • TO RED ROSE:
        Your O.B.AA. supposed government wasted millions in tax payers money for America Cup?
        Oh…you forgot??
        Keep that dirty memory alive.
        Oba was a total waste.and behaved like the ignorant Trump…anti-democratic.
        No intelligence or brilliance there.

    • Wahoo says:

      Is this the same group that want to run the municipalities?

    • Navin Johnson says:

      100% correct..government interference,over regulation,graft…who would want to invest under that cloud….gaming will never happen…..

    • sandgrownan says:

      “Step one, repeal the legislation that the former minister had passed giving him control.”

      Bingo. Nothing will happen until that’s done.

  2. MoF response says:

    “The Ministry of Finance will provide an update on the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission in due course.”

    This is a clown car statement.

    It is coming in due course because they are furiously trying to make it up!

    Please can we get some adults in the room!!!!

    • question says:

      It’s a bit like how the new bus schedules will be in use ‘any minute now’…

      • Meanwhile in reality says:

        47 bus runs have been cancelled on Wednesday.

        People from overseas must think Bermuda is a back water!!

        How we have slid so far, and then in Cayman things are bustling.

      • wahoo says:

        And the pending statement about the payout to the pepper spray grannies.

      • inna says:

        Or how Walton “thinks” the financing is almost back in place for Morgans Point.

        This govt is an absoulte disgrace!!!

  3. Kevin says:

    Absolutely a huge wasted opportunity but when you are so power and control hungry you want to be in charge of everything you lose what ever momentum there was….Burt moaning about 6 jobs the plp due to blunder after blunder and passing a law that gave politicians control of gaming cost Bermuda hundreds of jobs …ya ya bible thumpers are going to say gaming is bad but the reality is casinos would have brought jobs and entertainment to add value to our island…
    Burt ..guess you should blame the media I’m sure they wrote an article on this at sometime

    • Media says:

      You are right! The Commission and some media wrote total garbage stories about local businesses who tried to get into gaming. No different than they have done with Fintech.

      All of this poor media coverage was choreographed by the OBA and will come to light in court shortly.

      Many black Bermudians were kept out of gaming including the dealer training and certification service, the slot machines, as well as casino security.

      Time for JetGate to have its day in Court.

  4. sandgrownan says:

    “Minister of Spin”…love it.

  5. Infidelguy says:

    It will be interesting to see who the PLP blames for conspiring against them for this failure. It’s obvious that they only have themselves to blame but let’s see how creative they get with this one.

  6. Joe Bloggs says:

    Please keep quiet. Gaming is off the table and let’s keep that way. The only way legal gambling is going to take place in Bermuda is to give some shady bank a banking licence (the established banks have already said their correspondent banks will not touch gambling proceeds) and that will be the end of our good reputation. We will then be no better than any third world country that will pander to anyone just to get the business.

  7. Adklee says:

    As the saying goes, “my way or the highway”. Well PLP introduced legislation to have it all their way. So any interest from institutions and and investors has resultingly taken the highway.

  8. Me says:

    The make it up as they go along gaming would have been the better route than being scammed by bitcoin and the fintech nonsense

  9. Cow polly says:

    I wonder what the Greens and St Regis are thinking about this latest development given they are the holders of the Casino licenses? At the very least promises have been broken and they are funding huge development projects based on these promises. Please, please leave the Corporations and BTA alone PLP, give them a chance to be successful without your interference

  10. what's up says:

    Makes me laugh, they can’t seem to do anything properly. Bus schedule, taking over the BTA, schools with mold, so much debt we could all cry. Just shameful and all Burt does is blame others. Is this what we really want? These lot in Gov?