This week's speech at the Chamber of Commerce by consultant Lyall Hall has made a valuable contribution to the debate on gambling.

Mr. Hall, a partner with KPMG in Toronto who has worked on casino projects around the world, is well positioned to speak about the pros and cons of gambling.

He deserves credit for not taking a firm position on what Bermuda should do, but he for instead laying out a sensible framework for debate on the issue, grounded in facts, which should help Bermuda to make a rational decision.

It may be that the most important point Mr. Hall made was that the Island needs to decide what it wants gambling for. Does it want it to raise revenue for Government? Or does it want it to bolster the tourism industry?

Those are fundamental questions that help to decide what forms of gambling Bermuda could permit and whom a casino or a lottery would serve.

If Bermuda wants to raise tax revenue, then the easiest and most cost-effective way to do that is to keep ownership of gambling in Government's hands and to cater to the local population.

But if it wants to bolster tourism, then it could licence casinos to private enterprise and bar local customers, as the Bahamas does.

Mr. Hall predicts that Bermuda will have gambling within five years, simply because everywhere else will have it and Bermuda will lose its market otherwise.

Mr. Hall is right in saying that gambling will not be a panacea for either tourism or financial problems.

But he argues that with the proper controls and regulations and with clear objectives and supporting policies on revenue sharing, it can have a positive impact for an economy.

He also states that jurisdictions that have legalised gambling have not seen significant increases in crime or addiction, contradicting the anecdotal evidence that exists.

He says that problem gambling affects between three and six percent of the population, which equates to between 2,000 and 4,000 people in Bermuda.

One valuable point he makes is that this is not "Field of Dreams" ? you can't just a build it and they will come. It will take support from the public and private sectors and any revenue gains must be counted against that.

Another equally important point is that the right regulatory structure must be in place.

Given the shambolic and loophole-ridden state of Bermuda's current gambling laws, this too must be taken into consideration.

This newspaper has long been opposed to casino gambling, both because of the potential social problems that could arise (4,000 problem gamblers in a community of 68,000 seems like a lot) and because it does not view it as a panacea for tourism either.

It has held that if Government wishes to raise revenue, it should so through a lottery, with the funds raised going to charities, the arts and sports, all of which receive Government subsidies now.

But the community should be prepared to listen to people like Mr. Hall, provided his views are supported by the facts, as they seem to be.

And it is precisely these kinds of views that should be taken into consideration by a broad-based Government-sponsored commission of inquiry into the whole question.