Bahamas Considering Legal Online Gambling
When you think about taking a break of that mundane 9-5 job, what do you think of? Do you think of napping on the couch with Netflix running in the background? Maybe you’d like to pack a bag and hit the open road. For most people, they dream of a beach, preferably a quiet one, where they can relax and brush all of their cares in the world away, like the Bahamas.
The Bahamas are considering allowing legalized online gambling, which is great news, but there’s a catch. The residents that live in paradise wouldn’t be eligible to gamble online. The only people that would be eligible to gamble in the Bahamas are tourists.
This is a brilliant move. As of right now, only three states allow online gambling. While many more states are considering it, other places are being proactive about the issue, the Bahamas included. Rather than open it up to residents, who visit their land-based casinos, they offer it to tourists who may not be able to legally gamble online where they’re from. In fact, it could be marketed as a benefit of coming to the Bahamas. It’s unclear how it’d work as the details are still being ironed out.
Some Bahamian politicians aren’t too happy about it, as you can imagine. “It will be very contentious and I will speak out hard if Bahamians are disadvantaged in favor of foreigners,” MP Leslie Millar said.
What’s clear, though, is that tourists would have a choice. If they wanted to stay in and gamble online, they could. If they wanted to visit a land-based casino or explore the town, they’re free to do so. There will likely be benefits to gambling online, such as no deposit bonuses. At this stage, though, we’re speaking in hypotheticals. As mentioned earlier, this is in the very early stages of planning.
At this rate, it almost feels like the United States will be the last ones to legalize online gambling. In the United Kingdom, people gamble all day long from their phones, and nobody thinks twice about it. Look at the list of other countries that have legalized or are planning to legalize online gambling in the very near future. It’s quite a long list, and it gets longer as the weeks progress.
Sheldon Adelson will likely stay out of the Bahamas issue since it doesn’t directly involve him. Once again, United States politicians seem perfectly content to turn away extra money for little to no extra work on anyone’s part. Our programs continue to need funding, we’ll have no extra money to put toward scholarships, and states will continue to not have the extra money to finish projects that have been put off.
A bigger and brighter future indeed.