THOMAS. I have been getting some serious offers from some casino people

Accusing the government of hypocrisy on the issue, Kingsley Thomas, yesterday told the Patterson administration to make up its mind about casino gambling.

A positive decision, Thomas said, could mean a US$1-billion investment by two of the world's leading casino operators at Harmony Cove, the exclusive hotel and residential resort he is promoting in the northern Jamaica parish of Trelawny.

But at the same time Thomas, widely known to have the ear of Prime Minister P J Patterson and as the conceptuliser of some of the government's biggest projects, made it clear that the Harmony Cove development was not predicated on casino licences being available.

"The development is not conditional on casino gaming (and) it is not conditional on the government passing a law for casino gaming," Thomas, the managing director of the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), told members of the Rotary Club of Falmouth in the Trelawny capital, yesterday.
"The point I would like to make to you, however, is that I have been getting some serious offers from some casino people."

The most serious and largest of these is a proposal from two big casino companies - the American firm Caesars and Britain's Harrahs "who have joined forces to be the world's largest casino operators".

"We had projected a 1,000-room convention hotel on the property," Thomas said. "They have said to us, 'Listen, we are willing to put in US$1 billion. We are willing to put in $300 million equity on the table now'."

"We are not talking about a 1,000-room convention hotel," Thomas said. "We are talking about a 2,500-room convention hotel and, subject to the legislation being in place, a 30,000-square foot casino."

The Jamaican government has long dithered on the issue of formal casinos, although it, like its predecessors, has allowed other forms of gambling.

For instance, lotteries and horse racing are big businesses in Jamaica and there are several gaming rooms with slot machines across the island. But invoking fear of the Christian lobby and concerns about organised crime, Jamaican administrations have, up to now, held out against casinos with table games.

However, earlier this year, the government ordered the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC) to undertake a study of casino gaming and what forms it could take here. A private sector group, which supports casino gaming, also conducted its own study.

Neither report has been made public and there has been no serious and analytical debate on the issue, while proposals for casino-based developments have languished.

For instance, a group of Montego Bay-based developers have for years had on the table a major casino development for the north-western city, which is Jamaica's tourism hub.

Earlier this year Ray Chang, the Toronto-based
Jamaican entrepreneur representing a group of Canadian investors, proposed the purchase of the government-owned Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston if the deal would come with a casino licence. The idea would be to link the Pegasus with the adjacent Hilton Kingston Hotel, a property owned by a Canadian real estate entrepreneur.

The government has not publicly responded to that proposal, although Prime Minister Patterson had suggested a decision would have to await the BGLC report.

But for Thomas - who is also chairman of the National Housing Trust as well as the agency overseeing, with the French company Bouygues, the development of a tolled highway across southern and central Jamaica - the Jamaican government now operates a "double standard" regarding casinos.

"We have it (gambling) and the locals are the ones who are using it, patronising it. including poor Jamaicans," Thomas said. "In 2003 Jamaicans spent J$17.5 billion (US$291 million) on gambling. So it is hypocrisy for those who speak out against gambling when it is there to the tune of $17.5 billion."

"More importantly, this (planned) casino gambling is geared to visitors, not to Jamaicans," Thomas added. "Not that Jamaicans will be excluded, but that is geared to the foreigners."

Thomas insisted that Harmony Cove would go ahead with or without casinos.

"We have much more to offer in terms of a destination, I think," he said.

The Harmony Cove project, to be developed over several years, is to be on 1,400 acres of land with a projected cost, at the time of its conceptualisation, of about US$1.2 billion.

Among the proposals for the property are four hotels, exclusive manor homes, villas and condominiums, three golf courses and a private airport.

Battle royal at Heineken Green Synergy finals

University Players to bring 'Art' to local audiences

Club vs Station — Round one