Church endorses axing of Sunday racing
THE Jamaica Council of Churches has called Caymanas Track Limited’s (CTL’s) decision to scrap plans to stage Sunday races at Caymanas Park next year a “positive” move.
“Anything that reduces the opportunities for gambling is something positive for the country,” general secretary of the JCC, Gary Harriott, told the Observer on Tuesday.
Harriott’s statement came a day after CTL director Chris Armond told this newspaper there would be no Sunday races next year because government had failed to pass relevant legislation allowing for the opening of Off Track Betting (OTB) parlours on Sundays.
“Unless we’re able to sort out the situation with regard to our Off Track Betting parlours being open on a Sunday, it’s not feasible to go ahead with Sunday racing,” Armond said.
The take from punters on the inaugural Sunday raceday on November 29 was close to $40 million, but Armond said the turnover was not sufficient to cover CTL’s operational costs on the day. Races were also held at the venue on December 13.
Sales from OTBs account for close to 70 per cent of all CTL’s revenue from punters and bettors.
The Sunday raceday was being marketed as a ‘family fun day’ in which all its members could come out and enjoy activities geared towards both adults and children. The calendar proposed for 2010 would have included at least six Sunday racedays.
“I know when they had the two meets it was experimental,” Harriott said, adding that the JCC’s position reflected not one against horseracing on Sunday, or another day of the week, for that matter, but against gambling in general.
“Some people were trying to make it about the day, but for us it was far more about gambling than about the day,” he told the Observer.
The JCC umbrella covers five denominations of churches that utilise both Saturdays and Sundays for worship.
“Any (week) day that gambling takes place is wrong,” Harriott stated. “When you’re trying to improve the morals of the country… our issue is that when you think about the core values, this was not the way to go.”
He also accounted for that sector of society that feels that the revenue earned from Sunday races would help to boost the economy.
“Money is not the end all,” Harriott said. “… And when you think about it, who is the money really benefitting?” he reasoned.
Meanwhile, president of the United Bookmakers Association, Xavier Chin, said he agreed with the decision to axe Sunday races and says he didn’t agree with the decision for two Sundays this year.
“Why would you promote something and you lose 70 per cent of your revenue?” he reasoned.
“What a lot of people don’t know is that when they (CTL) added two Sundays, they removed four Wednesdays,” Chin told the Observer.
He added that the removal of those four Wednesdays from the racing calendar meant that more than 400 betting shops which were closed on those days lost their revenue and that commissioned workers would also have lost half their earnings for the month of December.
“There must be some sort of consideration for those commissioned workers,” he said.
“I don’t understand the economics of it,” Chin stated.