DEACON Ronald Thwaites, the Opposition member of Parliament for Central Kingston, was the lone voice crying in the wilderness yesterday against casino gaming, now being debated in the House of Representatives.

Thwaites blasted even the Church as he launched a broadside against the Casino Gaming Bill, which would finally give the Government’s stamp to an activity that inspires fiery debates for and against.

“There’s no hope, no future and no progress in a society that adopts such principles,” Thwaites, a Roman Catholic deacon, lamented while making his contribution to the debate on the Casino Gaming Act and An Act to Amend the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Act.

The MP’s railings against casino gaming was a departure from the tone of the debate as most members, on both sides of the chamber, who have already contributed to the debate, have hailed casino gaming as a way of providing much-needed jobs while bringing more high-end visitors to the country.

Thwaites quietly rose to his feet and first thanked the members of the parliamentary committee for their detailed report to the Parliament on the casino bill. However, that’s where his generosity ended.

“The legislation that is being proposed carries further, and perhaps the highest degree known and practised, the epitome of the transfer of resources from those who are desperate and needy to those who are wealthy,” he said.

Thwaites told the House that it was “undeniable that gambling, along with many other social practices, constituted a very serious addiction”. He further argued that there was no country where gambling was widespread, where the problem of addiction had not become a serious, social malady. “And we in Jamaica are uniquely lacking in facilities to treat this,” he said.

The Opposition MP warned that gambling was a “reaction of our attitude to productivity, a productivity that is declining rather than increasing by virtue of hard work”.

He also pointed to what he said were the negative effects of gambling on the family.

Said he: “Gambling circulates and cruelly redistributes. It produces nothing. It breaks up families and it reinforces an attitude of getting something for nothing and undermines savings, which in fact is the only hope for persons and economies such as ours.”

Thwaites cautioned that the proper systems must be put in place to ensure that casino gaming in Jamaica does not become susceptible to money laundering and terrorism, as he took issue with the Church for not speaking out more against casino gambling.

“I’m sorry that so many members of the religious community, who 30 years ago and even more recently had expressed their views on the rash of gambling in the society, have fallen into silence at this time and seemed to have lost the courage to oppose,” said Thwaites.

In his contribution to the debate, Opposition member Dr Wykeham McNeill argued against the establishment of two separate bodies to regulate gaming here — one to police the casino gaming sector and the other to run the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission.

He said it was irrelevant that a casino commission be funded by fees from that sector, adding that any move to set up two distinct monitoring bodies would cut against the Government’s attempts to reform and streamline the public sector.

Debate on the two bills will continue when the House resumes next Tuesday.