MONTEGO BAY, St James — Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States Stephen Vasciannie has warned that local industries, including tourism and money transfer, will suffer greatly if the lottery scam is not halted.

“Jamaica will destroy its tourism sector, its remittance sector, and its business sector more generally if the country assumes that the rest of the world will eventually ignore the lottery scam problem,” he warned Wednesday.

“Some people involved in the lottery scam seek to rationalise their activities as reparations for slavery or other historical sins. But we cannot live like this,” he lamented.

Ambassador Vasciannie was delivering the keynote address at the launch of the University of the West Indies Western Jamaica Campus (UWI-WJC) Ambassadorial Corps held at the Iberostar Hotel and Resort in Rose Hall. The event was Vasciannie’s first official trip to Jamaica since he took office in Washington, DC, last June.

Meanwhile, his warning came sharply on the heels of a push by United States lawmakers on Tuesday for lottery scammers to be extradited to that country to stand trial for defrauding Americans of millions of dollars.

The Jamaican diplomat challenged the UWI-WJC to not only lead the charge in denouncing the illegal sweepstakes, but to conduct studies to determine its cause.

“Western Jamaica Campus, its lecturers and students, should lead the media and the rest of the society in condemning lottery scam activities. The Western Jamaica Campus could also pursue research on the nature of the problem, and systematically consider the circumstances giving rise to the problem, and the moral implications of the scamming activities,” Vasciannie charged. “The Government of Jamaica is implementing the Law Reform (Fraudulent Activities) (Special Measures) Act 2013 to address aspects of the problem. The value of this effort and other activities, such as measures to amend the Evidence Act to combat scam activities, should be the subject of seminars and lectures on the Western Jamaica Campus”.

Meanwhile, the 12 members of the WJC Ambassadorial Corps, drawn from the parishes of St James, Hanover, Westmoreland, and St Elizabeth, include Caribbean Producers Jamaica Limited’s Mark Hart; Rainforest Seafood’s Ernest Grant; Everton Anderson of the National Health Fund; Sandals Resorts and Jamaica Observer Deputy Chairman Adam Stewart; Custos of Westmoreland Father Hartley Perrin; ear, nose and throat specialist Dr Barbara Salmon-Grandison; and Round Hill Hotel Villas’ Omar Robinson.

Howard Ward of Ward Power Tools; Hampton High School Principal Heather Murray, Island Outsourcers’ Yoni Epstein; Exclusive Holidays’ Fred Smith; and Hope Markes, governor elect of the Eastern Canada and the Caribbean District of Kiwanis International.