THE EDITOR, Sir:
NOW, I admire fancy footwork as much as the next man, but the recent gambit by the president and chief executive officer of Supreme Ventures Ltd. in offering the Government of Jamaica a sweetener of $500 million to rescind its 15 per cent taxation on punters' lottery winnings and to guarantee that there will be no changes in taxes during the life of his company's eight-year contract takes the cake!
Government, by vulgar drooling and smacking its lips at the winnings of the gaming industry, has telegraphed to the world a desperation and greed that has finally brought its chickens home to roost. But that does not excuse the boorish offer from a businessman to the government at a hearing of the House Parliamentary Committee on Tax Measures to take a "fishhead" if it will turn the other way on taxing his product.
In the name of all that's decent, what's next? An offer of a billion from some drug baron to guarantee the security of his deposits? Or, perhaps an auction, in which the highest bidder earns a tax-free holiday for the rest of the government's term of office?
There have been many suggestions made by people in the gaming industry that will generate far greater amounts of revenue than the amount offered by Supreme Ventures. There have been proposals made about introducing casinos as an element of the tourism product mix, there have been cries for a more realistic tax regime for horse-racing, both of which have fallen on fallow ground with this Minister of Finance. It will be interesting therefore to see on which side of this offer he comes down.
But it was surprising that the offer was not dismissed as inappropriate and unseemly on the spot at the very moment it was voiced. Since I first became involved in running a lottery in Jamaica, I have been cognisant of the need to behave responsibly as a corporate citizen. I proposed a scheme whereby the Sports Development Agency was able to derive millions of dollars on which our athletes drew to achieve distinction for Jamaica around the world. At the same time, lotto activity was taxed and the tax was paid.
I believe the burden of responsible corporate citizenship falls particularly heavily on the shoulders of those in the lottery business. That responsibility extends to an obligation to the type of games we offer the public and the extent to which they remain mere games of fantasy, in which one can dream of hitting the "big one" rather than become slave to a preoccupation with scoring a far smaller jackpot on a daily basis.
In these things I differ from others in this business. I do not differ in the opinion that the Minister of Finance seems determined to tax the lotto golden goose to death, but I am not prepared to offer him any inducements to see things my way. Simple reason should be able to do that.
I am etc.,
HOWARD L. HAMILTON
Kingston
