Normally, I would probably post this in the Politics forum, but since the election would probably swamp any discussion of this topic, I figured I’d drop it here in the Gaming forum.
Anyway… Holy Crap! Bermuda is actually considering getting into the online gambling industry!
According to the Royal Gazette – and isn’t it awesome that Bermuda has a paper called the Royal Gazette? – the small island “is currently assessing its suitability as a centre of Internet gaming, following a path taken by rival jurisdictions including Antigua and Barbuda and Costa Rica.”
According to the article, “Internet gaming is one of a series of possibilities, including casinos and a national lottery, being looked at in the $300,000 feasibility study.
This is fantastic for a lot of reasons.
First, this makes perfect sense for a small island nation/territory such as Bermuda. With only 65,000 people and a land area smaller than Manhattan island, Bermuda derives most of its revenues from international banking and tourism. In that respect, things have been going pretty well, as Wikipedia notes that Bemuda had the world’s highest GDP per capita in 2005.
However, which two industries do you think are going to be devastated the most by the looming global recession? Uhhhh, how about international banking and tourism?
So, right away, Bermuda has a major reason to embrace online gambling.
Secondly, for all of its image as a stodgy British colony, Bermuda is actually a fairly vibrant and progressive place. The influx of money and tourists over the years, along with a relatively small population has allowed the island to maintain a certain balance of wealth, prosperity and education across the entire population. They even have their own stock exchange, which hosts the world’s largest fully electronic offshore securities market. They know financial regulations and rules.
Thirdly, as the oldest and most populous remaining British territory, it has a world-class legal system.
Finally, it’s a tax haven. Need I say more?
I will.
I have been to Bermuda, and the place is a paradise. Picture your typical lush Caribbean island, and then picture it without it having been ravaged by years of environmental mismanagement. Now you’ve got an idea of Bermuda. It’s like they figured something out and managed to keep the place beautiful even while they embraced tourism and commerce.
In short, this is NOT a third-world nation. If I could convince my wife, I would have already moved there, but I digress.
If Bermuda gets into online gambling, you can reasonably expect that they will do it correctly, and as an already existing offshore financial center, you can imagine that companies based in Bermuda would not have too much trouble arranging payment processing.
In fact, if Bermuda were already in the industry, I would expect that virtually every reputable online gaming company would already have moved its head office, if not the entire operations, to Bermuda.
The only question is whether they are getting into it too late.
With the Democrats on the cusp of regaining the White House, and a recession looming, it’s not silly to imagine America flip-flopping and embracing online gambling – and its associated revenues – as early as 2009.
On top of that, there have been rumblings out of Canada about a desire to legalize and regulate online gambling up here too, and soon.
Still, I love the idea of Bermuda being host to online gaming companies. Not only is it a great fit, but at only a two hour flight from the Eastern seaboard, it’s a great excuse to visit more often.
