Financial crisis spending

October 26, 2008

Dear Sir,

You simply cannot make this up. The whole world, Bermuda included, is in a financial turmoil with pink slips, people loosing their homes, a financial crisis facing us all. In the middle of this Armageddon the Government is contemplating a raise in pay for the members of Parliament! It boggles the mind. A new sports complex in Somerset at a great cost, instead of housing for the people in the low income bracket. Minister Colonel David Burch holds forth on the TV about the housing in Paget that is being built while the low-cost ones are being deferred for lack of funding. Amazing they can find the resources for a Sports Complex in Somerset. The Loughlands ones in Paget are expensive and out of reach for a low income Bermudian. I really do not know how this Government is still in power. What they get away with is without explanation. As we say here in Bermuda: "I think they have gone all foolish".

L.L.

Pembroke

Call it what it really is

October 29, 2008

Dear Sir,

I am sure Ms Leckert of The Innovation group will earn her $300,000 fee for a market analysis of our island by producing a lengthy feasibility report filled with good solid reasons why Bermuda is ripe for the introduction of gambling. But gambling is such an offensive word and conjures up visions of slick Mafia types sucking up the profits and causing poor Bermudian residents to go broke feeding their frenzied habit instead of their families.

So let's start by calling it Gaming. Because that's what it really is. A game of chance where the wager is money and the opportunity to win thousands of dollars with one more roll of the dice, one more spin of the wheel or one last hand. I am eliminating slot machines because they require no skill whatsoever. But anyone who has played poker, baccarat, roulette, 21 or any other sophisticated game of chance knows full well that a great deal of skill and luck needs to be employed to be successful.

Next we should bear in mind that it is the European style of gamin that could work in Bermuda and not the Caribbean, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Indian Reservation style of mass slot machine gaming backing up a few card tables and a roulette wheel.

Next we must consider that our larger hotels are the only feasible venues for casinos. They can call upon the experience and the expertise needed in successful casino operation. And if you are not a registered guest staying at the hotel you are not allowed into the gaming area. That eliminates the opportunity of local residents being able to gamble at our casinos. Unless of course they are staying at one of the hotels. And if they are . . . well then they can afford to gamble.

As a long time advocate for reintroducing live local entertainment in all of our major hotels I have also been an advocate for introducing hotel casinos to pay for that entertainment. Live entertainment around the world has practically ceased to exist outside of the gaming industry circles. Live entertainment was paid for by alcohol consumption and when nightclub and bar patrons stopped consuming drinks, in fear of getting arrested for DWI, income dropped dramatically and live entertainment was the first to go.

So I hope Ms Leckert's report will convince the gaming nay sayers that hotel controlled gaming in Bermuda will. . .

a. improve our visitor arrival numbers

b. increase per capita visitor spending

c. support our gourmet restaurant industry that will suffer as our international business industry goes south,

d. and after 15 long years enable live, local, calypso entertainment to be a viable segment of our tourism package.

Viva gaming! Knock yourself out Suzanne!

JOHN H. WHITE

New Mexico — Indian Gaming Country