by Rick Lowe
I have maintained all along that web shops are actually legal as they've been operating for decades and were granted business licenses by the former FNM government. But that has not stopped three or four years of muddle, made worse by the PLP governments so called referendum to "legalise them".
The sustained campaign of anti-gambling groups like the church and other Bahamians that do not want to see the web shops (number houses) remain open, does not seem to be going away, and along comes Mr. Wayne Munroe, attorney for a group of the web shops, and he seems somewhat exasperated.
The famed defence attorney is quoted as saying in a nutshell that other large enterprises, namely food stores, auto companies and more, are controlled by white people, but people don't want the web shops legalised and the difference is the number houses are controlled by black people.
He then adds:
“As a colored person, as a negro, I am offended that we can trust caucasians to run everything, but we cannot trust a handful of negros to run anything.”
Surely Mr. Munroe had his tongue planted firmly in his cheek when he made those comments?
Maybe as a lawyer he does not understand there is no comparison between businesses that are taxed to the hilt, selling goods and services, and gambling houses that need little more than a mobile/hand held computer and clients hoping to get lucky.
He also misses the very salient fact of how many black bahamians are in businesses and professions, both large and small.
I thought Mr. Munroe was above blaming those damn white folks for his failure to convince those in political power of the legitimacy of his proposition, but maybe not.
Not to belabour the point, but the number houses have been operating for decades, and it seems only logical that they should be left alone to operate like gambling houses and other legitimate businesses all over the world. But his argument seems to have slipped from the sublime to the ridiculous.
