Much is being made this week in the overseas press of the Cayman Islands’ economic situation since the publication of the letter from British Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in charge of the Overseas Territories at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Chris Bryant, refusing permission for additional borrowings.

According to the Guardian newspaper in Britain, the threat of bankruptcy brings a new concept to the Cayman Islands … taxes. The newspaper goes on to report that the Cayman government is heading for bankruptcy -- unable to pay its own staff and facing the prospect of introducing taxes as income from the world’s financial system collapses.

The article does not paint a pretty picture and will only compound the public relations and other business difficulties the financial sector is currently facing. After all, many people would think long and hard about entrusting their money to institutions in a small Island economy whose government is now well-known to be hard up for cash.

With perhaps a tinge of schadenfreude, the Royal Gazette in Bermuda reports that territory’s governor as saying that Bermuda has not reached levels of public debt that would cause the UK such alarm as has been voiced in relation to the Cayman Islands.

In the meantime, our government has to grapple with the necessity of reducing its expenditure and/or raising new revenue – preferably both.

A number of suggestions were made at last week’s financial “summit” for raising additional revenue and one such suggestion was that of a national lottery.

The provenance of the suggestion itself is now disputed, with the Civil Service Association trying to distance itself from what was put forward, ostensibly in the Association’s name, by the Leader of Government Business, Hon. McKeeva Bush.

Be that as it may, a dispute over its genesis does not make the suggestion any less debatable in the current dire economic situation.

Indeed, the possibility of a national lottery is one that we have canvassed in these columns on several occasions in recent years and, with somewhat more foresight on the part of successive governments, the country might not now be forced to scramble to raise urgently needed cash to keep the economy afloat.

For years, some people have been advocating the licensing of casinos here, but restricted to hotel guests and non-residents only – along the same development as the Bahamas. The idea of a national lottery has also been raised on several occasions on the premise that if people are going to spend money on lottery tickets (which they do), the country may as well derive some benefit from it instead of, typically, the state of Florida.

The idea of a national lottery always draws howls of protest from the religious establishment. However, given that churches, businesses and charities actively promote and participate in games of chance in the shape of raffles and other “drawings”, this strikes us as being more than a tad hypocritical – as does the practice of some zealous churchgoers of buying Florida Lotto tickets as soon as they reach Miami.

Furthermore, such protests fail to take into account the existing underground economy represented by the illegal numbers racket, which according to some estimates pulls in at least $5 million each week from local punters.

Such activity is illegal, everyone knows it is illegal, yet it still flourishes, sometimes with the tacit acceptance and even active participation of those charged with enforcing the law.

How ridiculous is this?

The entire country pays lip service to the notion that gambling is illegal in order to satisfy some self-righteous penchant for keeping up appearances, while at the same time what seems like the entire population blithely engages in games of chance of one description or another, sometimes in secret, as in the numbers game, sometimes in plain view as in the latest high value raffle.

Yes, one can argue that those purchasing raffle tickets designed to raise money for local charities have altruistic or philanthropic motives that are as pure as the driven snow but, in our experience, they definitely have their eyes fixed on the car, boat – even lump sums of cash or whatever the major prize might be.

Why not, therefore, legalise what is already taking place and benefit the entire community instead of just those engaged in the numbers racket?

So far as casino gambling is concerned, there can be little doubt that it would generate new revenue streams for government and, really, how difficult would it be to regulate and police properly?

At this point, failure to acknowledge the gravity of the current economic situation and actively pursue any and all means of raising money is, frankly, gambling with the very future of the Cayman Islands and its people.