Green report proposes extending UK National Lottery to overseas territories
Cayman Islands residents should be allowed to play the multimillion-dollar British National Lottery, a U.K. parliamentary committee has recommended.
The proposal that residents in all Britain’s overseas territories enter the weekly numbers game, through in-store terminals and over the Internet, aims to make conservation projects in the islands open to lottery funding.
If it is followed through, it would also mean island residents would be eligible to play for prize money, which can reach up to $30 million.
The practicalities of introducing the lottery in places like Cayman, which do not allow gambling, were not discussed by the cross-party Environmental Audit Committee, which made the suggestion as a potential new revenue stream for conservation efforts in the U.K.’s overseas territories.
In a broad ranging report on sustainability in the territories, the committee said the U.K. is not doing enough, practically or financially, to protect the environment in the islands, which it says account for more than 90 percent of the biodiversity under its control.
The lottery proposal is just one of a series of suggestions aimed at increasing the U.K.’s involvement in the environmental affairs of its territories.
The report also suggests that staff from the U.K.’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, known as DEFRA, be sanctioned to make regular visits to the territories, including the Cayman Islands, to “examine environmental issues” and ensure governments are meeting international treaty obligations.
The commission, which visited the Cayman Islands in June as part of its research, expressed specific concerns about the waste management facility, the Turtle Farm and the failure of successive governments to use the Environmental Protection Fund.
It also warns that the lack of any development plan for the Sister Islands is a significant concern for unique environments, particularly in Little Cayman.
The broad conclusion of the report is that successive governments in the U.K. have failed to adequately protect globally significant biodiversity, partially by “subcontracting” responsibility to governments in the territories.
It argues that the U.K. needs to play a bigger role, re-asserting its influence on environmental issues in the same way it has done in financial matters, such as tax transparency.
“The natural environment in the Overseas Territories is incredibly diverse but it is currently under protected. That is ultimately a U.K. government responsibility,” the committee’s chairwoman Joan Walley wrote.
The report also calls on the U.K. to work with governments in the territories, as well as charities and research organizations, to properly catalog the full extent of biodiversity in the islands, which it suggests is currently unknown.
“The U.K. doesn’t even know precisely what it is responsible for,” Ms Walley added.
The report urged further direct investment from the U.K. in sustainability and conservation in the territories and highlighted new potential sources of funding, including the lottery.
“We recommend that Department for Culture, Media and Sport extends the right to play the National Lottery to U.K. overseas territories’ residents using terminals and via the Internet. “When this is achieved, the department should direct the Heritage Lottery Fund to accord applications for projects in the territories equal priority with applications for projects in the U.K.,” it stated.
A large part of the report focused on the Cayman Islands, apparently the only territory that members visited during the research period.
The commission expresses “regret” that the U.K. has not done enough to persuade Cayman to properly use its own Environmental Protection Fund, pointing out that more than $40 million collected from visitors has largely gone unused. It says U.K. funding could be diverted to poorer islands if Cayman used its fund properly.
The report also takes issue with Cayman’s waste management facilities, expressing surprise at the old-fashioned practices observed during site visits.
“We saw old refrigerators being crushed with no regard to CFCs and recycling that ranged from minimal to non-existent. The waste management site on Grand Cayman appeared to be inadequately lined and waste may be seeping into the water table. The facilities on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman were even less convincing,” the report stated.
It recommended a partnership with a local authority in the U.K. to share “best practice.”
While withholding direct comment on the Turtle Farm, the report pointed out that the state-run facility receives four times the funding of the Department of Environment and 20 times that of the National Trust.
It also summarized criticisms of the farm from others and welcomed a proposed dialog on the issue between the Cayman Islands government and the World Society for the Protection of Animals.
The lack of adequate development plans in the Sister Islands and several other of the U.K.’s territories is raised as a key concern. And the report recommends that DEFRA play a greater role in helping territories shape “planning regimes which value and protect natural capital and promote sustainable tourism.”
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Beware those bearing gifts…nothing is ever for ‘free’.
Anyone who has studied the history of British imperialism would know that the age-old tactics of coming to a territory and pointing out what is wrong…and offering assistance in ‘fixing’ the problems was the backbone of building the ‘British Empire’.
Cayman’s reluctance to come out of the ‘stone-age’ mentality is setting Cayman up for a full British takeover, in the name of ‘helping you sort out your environmental problems’.
Get a national lottery organised from the illegal numbers racket…and get a final solution for ‘mount thrashmore’ in place…
If Cayman does not want to be marching to a British tune before too long.
Something smells fishy about this story.
Sounds to me like Mom doesn’t think the kids can run things on their own any longer..
I stopped doing the UK Lotto or National Lottery years ago because –
1. Too much money gets lost in admin costs, prizes, tax and other overheads.
2. Because of 1. above not enough money goes to good causes – the official figure is 28 percent.
3. Many of the so-called good causes that this money goes to do nothing to benefit people who really need lottery funding or local communities.
Bottom line is the National Lottery would simply take money from people in the Cayman Islands without giving anything back.
This would get rid of the hypocrisy here in Cayman of not allowing gambling, but allowing a church and other organisations to have raffles with tickets at 25 to win thousannds of dollars …..
As the ‘good causes’ the UK National Lottery supports are those things that should, in an ideal world, be paid for by taxation.
If the Cayman Islands wants to find a funding stream for good causes on the islands can I suggest they introduce direct or indirect taxation themselves and stop rely on the largesse of the dubious banking and businesses that operate there.
And for those who seemingly despise being a OT, start campaigning for full independence (The UN will support any nation who wish to self determine).
Maybe one day the UK public will be allowed to vote on whether they want to keep their OT’s.
Maybe one day the UK public will be allowed to vote on whether they want to keep their OT’s.
If you ask the average Brit on the street, what a BOT (British Overseas Territory)is…you will get this blank look and ‘duuuhhh, what the ‘ell is that, mate ?
What an informed and educated vote that would be !
The Cayman Islands pays its own way; maybe this is why the UK will not stop attempting to sneak UK taxation in through the back-door.
This UK lottery offer is just another attempt to do that; if the UK’s lottery is forced on Cayman and funds from its Cayman players..or UK players used to fund Cayman’s environmental protection, you can be sure of one thing…
The UK will want something in return.
Cayman will have accepted UK generated tax funds, as the lottery funds used to fund worthy projects are…it is the UK way of taxing the lottery by calling it a ‘contribution; it is, in reality, a tax.
I’ve already suggested that Cayman legalises its own ‘underground, illegal lottery'(the well-known numbers racket in Cayman) to avoid falling into this well-laid UK trap.
If there is to be a legal Lottery in Cayman, they should create their own in order to retain control over it. A Lottery would generate a lot of revenue that Cayman really needs.
Cayman Islands pays its own way? Really?
In most countries in the world, citizens pay for the services they receive through taxation. In Cayman, the services are paid for because of the monies raised from the banking sector and global businesses most of which do not trade in the Islands other than to avoid taxation elsewhere.
Once this financial bubble bursts – an believe you me, it will one day in the not too distant future – Cayman Islanders will have to begin to pay direct taxes and only then, they will be able to say they pay their own way.
Until then, the Islands will have to rely on that little Union Flag on the corner of their flag to provide some assurances to the global financial community.
Are you sure that you want to get into this particular debate with me?
With the weakness and paucity of your arguments … and that you’ve already gone way off topic, you’re on a loser already … but … it’s your funeral.
You seem consumed by envy, pure and simple but let me enlighten you to a few more truths.
The City of London financial centre is in exactly the same business that Britain’s overseas financial centres, including the Cayman Islands, are in … competing in the global financial markets and some of the banking done by the City of London financiers is done where ?
Exactly, Sherlock!
In the Cayman Islands.
Your statement about Cayman’s services being paid for by the financial industry is pure nonsense … what do you think ALL the duties and fees paid to the CI Govt. are, except an indirect tax to pay for services provided?
The banking industry in Cayman does not pay direct taxes to the CI Govt., as they would do in all the other countries that you have mentioned … how much less do you think they pay in fees in Cayman than they would in direct taxation in other countries, including Britain?
Do you think that they should operate in Cayman for absolutely nothing?
Your arguments only prove the truth of my original assertions … that this suggested introduction of the UK lottery is only a way to trick Cayman into accepting direct tax funds from the UK. And thus give the UK the opportunity to impose direct UK taxation on Cayman.
BTW, have you heard of the sweet deal that the City of London has just made with the Chinese Govt. to be Europe’s main broker in the flotation of China’s currency, the yuan, on the international currency exchange markets?
And you have the nerve to point fingers at the Cayman Islands?