- Shadow Finance Minister David Burt has proposed that Bermuda should establish a regulatory regime for online gaming.
- The government is planning to allow casinos on the island, but Burt argues it should go further.
During a budget speech in Bermuda, Shadow Finance Minister David Burt proposed that Bermuda establish a regulatory regime for online gaming.
Burt told the House of Assembly, “online gaming is a $35 billion global industry, and Bermuda already has the infrastructure to be player.” He cited job creation and revenue as the reasons to “to move forward with creating an online-gaming industry in Bermuda.”
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic with the nearest landfall at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Tourism is a major industry, and regulations for casinos on cruise ships were relaxed last year. The success of that measure has led the government to propose the establishment of casinos to take advantage of the tourist market.
Burt argued that the government was not going far enough in its ambitions. “Last year, online gaming provided over $80 million in tax revenues and directly supported 2,600 jobs in our sister overseas territory of Gibraltar,” he stated.
In addition to seeking a liberalization of online gaming, Burt called for the regulation and taxation of cannabis. His speech clearly lived up to the island’s motto “Quo Fata Ferunt”—wherever fate takes us.
