HAMILTON, Bermuda (CMC) – A United States consultant is advising the Bermuda government to establish the island as a centre for online lottery bets along with conventional internet gaming as the authorities discuss whether to introduce casino gambling here.
Florida-based consultant, Joe Zajac told The Royal Gazette newspaper that the trend in the United States now is for states to allow lottery tickets to be sold online.
“But they’re constrained by their own laws – they can’t go outside state lines,” he said, adding that the authorities should seek to capitalize on the situation.
“The feedback I’m getting is that Bermuda wants to push for casinos, even though the headaches with casinos versus the lottery are like night and day.
“The concern I have is that if legislators are going to have a debate on gaming here, it will be nothing more than casinos, which generate a tiny amount of revenue. These days we have casinos up and down the East Coast of the US, and even Atlantic City is having problems.”
Zajac said Bermuda’s small size would not provide a large return on a national lottery even though the global lottery industry generated billions of dollars in sales.
“To give you an idea, worldwide the lottery is experiencing US$275 billion in sales. If you had a quarter of a percent market share with a 40 per cent margin, which is not unreasonable, that could come out to US$275 million to the government.”
Zajac said he had presented the idea to the then Progressive Labour Party (PLP) government, but was unsuccessful in securing a meeting with then premier Paula Cox.
He said he reintroduced the matter soon after the One Bermuda Alliance (OBA) won the last general election in 2012.
But he said he has not been able to discuss the issue the proposal to the OBA gaming committee.
“No one ever called me with questions,” he told the newspaper, adding “the reason I believe this is the right time to get this out in the open is I don’t see Government talking about it. At this point, if the idea gets floated to the public, there might be more of an incentive to have a discussion.”