Dear Editor,
St. Maarten’s casinos and lottery booths promise excitement and opportunity, but the reality is far less glamorous. Behind the flashing lights lies a system riddled with inefficiency, exploitation, and corruption. While a privileged few line their pockets, the rest of the island is left to shoulder the cost of weak oversight and missed opportunities for reform.
The great casino heist
Casinos in St. Maarten enjoy a sweet deal: they pay a fixed annual fee of just 600,000 Antillean guilders for full casinos and 120,000 for slot machine businesses. This outdated system doesn’t even scratch the surface of their actual revenues. Yet, despite this laughably low fee, many operators still fail to pay their fair share.
From 2017 to 2020, the government collected between 15% to 54% of the 10.7 million Antillean guilders it was owed, according to the General Audit Chamber’s 2021 report “Mini Audit: Responsible Gambling”. Millions were left on the table – money that could have built homes, funded healthcare, or improved public infrastructure.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its 2020 and 2021 assessments, recommended switching to a tax system based on casino profits rather than flat fees – a model that has successfully boosted government revenues in other Caribbean nations like Jamaica. However, enforcement is so weak that even the current system fails. It’s not just negligence – it’s a system designed to benefit the privileged few while hardworking people of St. Maarten carry the economy on their backs.
Targeting vulnerable communities
St. Maarten is dotted with nearly seven lottery booths per square mile, with 75% concentrated in low-income neighborhoods, according to the Social Economic Council SER in 2021. For wealthy operators, these booths are cash cows. For the vulnerable families they target, they’re a financial trap disguised as hope.
The General Audit Chamber’s 2021 report revealed that funding for programs at Turning Point, which supported those battling gambling addiction, was cut in 2016. Since then, individuals and families struggling with addiction have been left without support. Meanwhile, lottery operators continue to profit freely, leaving the communities they exploit to fend for themselves.
It’s time to demand accountability. Lottery operators must be required to fund addiction treatment programs, financial literacy initiatives, and community support services – like they do in countries such as Barbados, where gambling revenues contribute to social development funds. Without these changes, lottery booths will remain predatory traps that exploit those who can least afford to lose.
The costs of weak oversight
Gambling isn’t just a local issue – it’s a global liability. St. Maarten’s casinos have long been linked to money-laundering, a problem highlighted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) in its 2019 Mutual Evaluation Report. Weak anti-money laundering (AML) measures leave the island vulnerable to financial abuse and corruption.
In September 2024, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) called for greater independence and resources to tackle these issues. However, the lack of reform isolates St. Maarten from global financial systems, restricting access to platforms like Stripe and other international services. Businesses and residents are locked out of the global e-commerce market, leaving the island at an economic disadvantage.
While the privileged prosper, the broader community remains excluded from opportunities that could drive growth and resilience. This stagnation is the cost of inaction, and the people of St. Maarten are paying the price.
A vision for leadership: Reform over exploitation
St. Maarten’s dependence on aid from the Netherlands underscores its vulnerability to external control. Gambling reform could be one of the game-changers the island desperately needs to break free from this cycle of reliance.
Consider this: if St. Maarten taxed casinos based on profits and enforced existing laws, millions more could be generated annually – enough to rebuild schools, develop agriculture programs, and invest in renewable energy. Imagine a St. Maarten where gambling operators fuel community growth instead of simply lining their own pockets.
The tools for reform are already in hand. What’s missing is the political will to prioritize the people over the privileged few. Gambling doesn’t have to be a rigged game; it can be a powerful force for fairness, independence, and growth. The real question is: will St. Maarten’s leaders rise to the challenge, or will they keep playing by the same old rules?
Angelique Remy-Chittick
Financial Strategist and Consultant
Financial.ish
Today we are called to recognize a challenging truth: the climate crisis we face is not only an environmental issue; it is deeply rooted in colonialism. And for places like our island Bonaire, this colonial impact is not just history – it is an ongoing reality.
Bonaire is not post-colonial. We are not yet free from colonial influence and domination, because today Bonaire continues to experience oppression under contemporary colonialism. Though we may appear on the map as part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, we are annexed and imbedded in the Dutch constitution under unequal rights and against the wishes and democratic vote of the Bonerians. Our people lack the freedom to govern their own lands fully, to protect their resources, or to shape their future without interference. Holland maintains significant control over Bonaire, making decisions that profoundly impact on our environment, economy, and community.
For decades, colonial powers exploited and extracted resources from across the globe with little regard for the local environments or the people who depended on them. This exploitation, which has fuelled the global climate crisis, continues in places like Bonaire. From policies that prioritize foreign interests over local needs to decisions that limit our community’s ability to protect and manage our resources, the legacy of colonialism is alive in a modern form.
Today, the people of Bonaire are experiencing the consequences of climate change more acutely than those in power. Rising sea levels threaten our coasts, extreme weather endangers our homes, and access to resources becomes increasingly strained. Yet, despite bearing these burdens, Bonaire has limited power to enact policies that prioritize local environmental protection over external profit.
In this context, climate justice for Bonaire must also be about freedom from colonial oppression. It must mean recognizing our right to self-govern, to safeguard our resources, and to lead our environmental stewardship. The world must understand that addressing the climate crisis is inseparable from dismantling the systems of control and exploitation that colonialism has left – in our case continues colonial systems that Holland continues to impose on Bonaire.
As we seek solutions to the climate crisis, we must not overlook the realities of contemporary colonialism. Colonization, the inhuman, illegal invasion and extraction of our natural resources, destroyed our nature, our habitat, our way life, led to today’s climate and environmental crisis.
The problem is not global warming or climate crisis, these are consequences, the problem is colonialism, the insatiable unsustainable greed of the colonizers that keep modernizing their methods and systems to the extreme limits we are nearing now.
Now the same colonizers are coming back and saying the world has a problem, yes, after you invaded and destroyed our territories and our world, left us behind wrecked, ruined and called us 3rd world, you coming back to us now for what? Because your unsustainable 1st world is running out of options?
There is no green, blue or orange future for us as colonized peoples in our colonized territories.
We must advocate true sustainability and that is only possible through true equality and true freedom, for our island Bonaire and other communities still affected under this oppressive, extractive, ruinous colonial legacy.
Only then can we work toward a future where our people can build resilience, protect their lands, and ensure a sustainable and just world for generations to come.
James Finies
Bonaire Human Rights Organization
Dear Editor,
Soon or later in the near future, Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten (CAS islands) will be independent some day. The UN (United Nations) did expect many nations to go independent by the year 2000.
So, if the Dutch are calling on the CAS islands to go independent and the Dutch appoint me for two to three months as the state secretary for the Dutch Caribbean, l will see to it that there will be no referendum or no two thirds of any of the three islands’ parliamentarians’ vote needed to get their independence.
I would rather give the three islands a mandate to declare their independence by 2029; and one of St. Maarteners’ priorities is to have their own central bank and to uplift their justice system here in St. Maarten.
Cuthbert Bannis
Dear Editor,
It looks as if we are heading towards a catastrophic flooding as we had in the late 90’s.
The rain has stopped now for about a day or so, the Fresh Pond has been lowered (well done ), but it is obvious the main pumps, 3 in total, to control the level of the Great Salt Pond do not appear to be working.
The water is already covering half of the public parking areas on Pondfill.
I think it would be very wise to have someone look into what is happening with VROMI as they are in charge of maintaining these critical pumps.
One more heavy rain soon and we will be under water again.
A concerned citizen
Name withheld at author’s request.
Dear Editor,
I want to echo words of encouragement and appreciation to outgoing Minister of VSA [Public Health, Social Development, and Labor – Ed.] Veronica Jansen-Webster, who will be taking up her seat in parliament very shortly. Minister, I know that you are hurt and disappointed with this unfair transition – an alteration that was forced upon you because of greed, malice and a lack of connection with their spiritual selves.
The manner in which Prime Minister Luc Mercelina and MP Richniel Brug treated you is unethical, unfair and dirty to the core. But don’t you worry, Minister Veronica Jansen-Webster. Karma is a very good friend to all those who traverse on her path, without an invitation.
Neither Prime Minister Luc Mercelina nor Richniel Brug could address this community, with regard to integrity. The population should have never accepted this underhand precedent that is bound to cause problems in the future. They should have demanded the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Luc Mecerlina, for his negligence and unprincipled behaviour.
In addition, how could Prime Minister Luc Mercelina allow MP Richniel Brug’s incoming Chief of Staff to sit in Minister Veronica Jansen-Webster’s cabinet as if she is in charge, while Minister Veronica Jansen-Webster has her own Chief of Staff? If this is the path that the Prime Minister and the MP have taken, how could the population trust either one of them? This is trouble brewing down the line.
This reminds me of a situation where a politician asked a Department Head to train her immediate family member. Shortly after that, she fired the individual, so that her family member could take over the position. But, as the saying goes, life is a circle. Nothing that starts wrong, will end up right.
So, Minister Veronica Jansen-Webster, use this obstruction as an inspiration for spiritual growth. As you transition to your new position, approach your task with the same spirit of devotion, knowing that you have done your best to maintain the integrity of your ministry. Here’s a little poem that I came across, just for you.
Keep Going
When the path is tough and steep
And it’s hard for you to keep
Remember God is by your side
To lead, to help, to be your guide.
Like Noah, strong in every way
He trusted God day by day.
So when you feel you’ve had enough
Just keep going, stay strong and tough!
Joslyn Morton
