Former Laventille/East Morvant MP Fitzgerald Hinds has called on Prime Minister Patrick Manning to stop the establishment of casinos in his community and to re-commit to disbanding the industry once and for all.

Hinds, in an open letter to Prime Minister Patrick Manning, said that given the government’s position on gambling he had expected to see a reduction in casinos establishment but this was ’not the reality. New casinos are springing up all over the land.’

Hinds, a former minister in the Ministry of National Security, said he was shocked to learn recently of a building that was being refurbished and which was apparently going to be the home of a new casino gambling outlet in the Malick/Barataria area.

’...This building is located at the constituency of Laventille/East Morvant the area I represented as the Member of Parliament. This is an area for which I still hold deep levels of concern and brotherly love for the people I was shocked and disturbed in the extreme, as I contemplated the implications of this nasty development.

’Mr prime minister, be reminded that casino gambling remains illegal in Trinidad and Tobago and the name ’Members Club’-in this case-’Lucky Members Club’ is really a thin leaf to hide their nasty, ugly and illegal nakedness.’

Hinds noted that communities such as Laventille were already ’overburdened with drugs, crime, teenaged pregnancies, poverty, hopelessness and social depression-often the result of poor choices’, and the last thing the residents needed was a casino at their doorstep.

’Honorable prime minister I call upon you to use your high office to prevent this from happening. You must be sensitive to their need and take some action to protect your people.’

He also called on Manning to demand of the Police Service, now led by Acting Commissioner James Philbert to use the law to prevent ’this illegal disaster’.

Hinds said what the people of Laventille really needed was ’adequate and reliable water supply, improved lighting, more technical facilities, modern community complexes with cutting edge multimedia capacities, more sporting facilities, including swimming pools, improved healthcare delivery, improved road and drainage systems, improved policing approaches and techniques, to win the community support and stamp out blatant illegality perhaps most importantly, a massive input of counselling and social work expertise.’

It was during the 2006/2007 national budget presentation last year that Prime Minister Manning announced the government’s intention to disband the local casino industry and to clamp down on other forms of illegal gambling.

After much protest from employees and interest groups within the industry, Manning announced that he would give them a five-year grace period so they could get their acts together and prepare for the phasing out of the industry.