Lottery and cannabis options to be reviewed by Law Reform Commission

Government will ask the Law Reform Commission to investigate options on how to proceed following April’s referendum votes in favour of decriminalising cannabis and allowing a national lottery.

The move was announced in Parliament on Friday by Premier André Ebanks, who also announced plans to support businesses reliant on the cruise industry, given the public vote against building a cruise berth.

In response to a question from Opposition Deputy Leader Kenneth Bryan, Ebanks said, “Voters of these islands have spoken clearly,” pointing out that 64.15% of voters rejected cruise berthing facilities, while 51.24% approved a national lottery and 55.64% approved decriminalisation of cannabis in small amounts.

When removing the referendum ballots where the voters did not vote at all or otherwise spoiled their vote on the referendum issues, 60.44% of those who voted either yes or no supported the decriminalisation of small amounts of cannabis and 55.18% supported a national lottery.

Ebanks added, “This government is committed to honouring the will of the Caymanian people, as expressed through the democratic process.”

Given the slim majority in favour of a national lottery, he said that the matter will be referred to the Law Reform Commission to make recommendations on how it could be operated and regulated, such as the legal framework and licensing regimes, mechanisms for oversight and transparency, safeguards against problems associated with gambling, and the business models that could optimise revenues and cost.

As for decriminalisation of cannabis, Ebanks said that the issue would also be formally referred to the Law Reform Commission to evaluate and make recommendations “regarding key matters, such as proposed possession thresholds and legal definitions, levels of administrative penalties, alignment with existing drug enforcement, as well as regional and international obligations, potential social impacts and safeguarding vulnerable populations”.

Once government receives and reviews the commission’s reports, Ebanks said Parliament would be updated, adding that he hoped to have an outline of the body of work by October.

Analysis of cruise industry

Bodden Town East MP Dwayne Seymour asked whether there were any concerns in terms of “the dwindling numbers of cruise passengers” and whether a think tank had been set up to evaluate the industry.

In response, Ebanks said Deputy Premier and Minister of Tourism Gary Rutty and his staff were currently compiling a “short-, medium- and long-term plan to assess the options … now that stayover is quite strong and continuing to grow”. 

He said that they would be looking at “how you can transition some of those business owners, whether or not there can be [some] financial assistance either through the Development Bank or the Centre for Business Development, and then also whether or not there could be training programmes to move [people] to other industries. So, give us some time to be able to put those strategies forward, because at the end of the day, we have to take care of our people economically”.

Cruise questions

The issue of cruise numbers had been mentioned earlier in Friday’s parliamentary session, when Rutty was asked by Bryan, the former tourism minister, whether there had been a “further decline in the cruise passenger number projections for the year 2026 and 2027 since the 2025 general election”.

Rutty said that was not the case.

“Most of these calls were confirmed prior to 2025 and before the general election of this year,” he said.

In response, Bryan said that he was a “bit concerned” about this answer, “because I’ve had the manager of the Port Authority send me an email last week suggesting that there has been a reduction in the projections of next year, so there seems to be a communication problem between the ministry and the Port Authority and the reality of what’s happening in the cruise industry”.

Bryan said he would table the email in the House and asked if Rutty “has any intentions of keeping any tracking of projected loss as a result of the referendum results”, to which Rutty replied that he would be tracking the figures via the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association and the Port Authority.