‘Poll on gaming by February’

There will be a public referendum on gaming by February, the Premier pledged yesterday.

Craig Cannonier told the Bermuda Sun: “I would like to see a referendum held no later than February and we are aggressively moving forward with this. 

“We’ve said we would go to referendum. What we want to do though, is place before Bermuda a complete model, and that has never happened before.

Controls

“It’s important we get it right, that it’s something they [the people] can digest and chew on, that it’s something they can understand.

“In the past, just to say, ‘Do we want gaming or not?’, I think that was an unfair question.

“What we should be looking at is, what is the model we have, and where are the controls in place that people are concerned about, so that we can move forward.”

Mr Cannonier said: “I do believe that gaming is an amenity the rest of the world has been moving forward with and it’s just another part of our tourism product.

“I believe it should be and so we will go forward and the referendum will take place.”