A long awaited referendum on gaming will go before the public before next year’s Budget, according to Tourism Minister Shawn Crockwell.Questioned by Shadow Finance Minister David Burt on the lack of the promised referendum during yesterday’s sitting of the House of Assembly, Mr Crockwell said Government remains committed to moving forward as quickly as possible.“We believe, we are confident that the referendum will happen before the budget of next year,” Mr Crockwell said. “We are confident of that, but we are still waited for updated information.“We are working tirelessly on this. I can tell you as chairman of the committee, it is something we have been dealing with, and we understand the importance, but because of that importance, we recognise that we have to get it right.”The Minister said in May that the referendum, promised by the One Bermuda Alliance before their election last year, would be held “by the end of summer or the beginning of fall.”However last night Mr Crockwell said that before the referendum can go ahead, Government must select the right model for gaming on the Island and then educate the public so that they know exactly what they are voting for.“I have been on record promoting the fact that, at least for tourism, we need to introduce this amenity to help incentivise people coming to Bermuda, but we as Government need to make sure we get the model right,” Mr Crockwell said.Mr Crockwell told the House that while the previous administration, with the Innovation Group, produced a green paper on gaming in Bermuda, he and his Ministry only recently became aware of the full contents of the report.“We found out that the organisation compiled a great deal of information, a great deal of data as it related to the study of gaming in Bermuda,” he said. “I believe there were six different models that they had explored and they made a recommendation of a particular model that they felt was most suitable for Bermuda.“We had never seen that before. We didn’t see it while we were in opposition. All we saw was the green paper, and since we became the Government it was never brought to our attention that this information was available. All my director at the Ministry of Tourism had was the executive summary.”Mr Crockwell said the Ministry has since met with the Innovation Group and asked them to update the report to take into account changes on the Island since 2008.