The government of the Bahamas has postposed a planned referendum on a national lottery until Jan. 28, 2013, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced Tuesday.
The move came from a need for more dialogue, he said.
“I am a Prime Minister who listens,” he said .”And in listening to the still-evolving public discourse on the forthcoming referendum it has become clear to me that more time is needed before the Bahamian people are called upon to vote.”
Christie said he was supported in that view by a “cross-section” of the national community with whom he has been consulting.
“I have therefore decided, with the full support of my cabinet colleagues, to postpone the referendum,” he said. “This will allow sufficient time to facilitate the widest-possible dialogue on the referendum issues and the dissemination of information on those issues.”
He said that his government’s gaming advisors had initially advised that a National Lottery would “not be viable” given the small size of the Bahamian population, and “the competition which would be experienced from the proximity of the Bahamas to the United States with its huge lottery jackpots.”
Read more: Caribbean Journal
