JAMAICA’S failure to develop a profitable and sustainable casino industry, 11 years after passing the necessary legislation, is about to be amended to deliver more investments and jobs.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke last night piloted a Bill through the House of Representatives, supported by the Opposition, which the Government believes will create an environment conducive to this kind of investment.

He said the new approach is being taken against the background of having a casino gaming legislative framework in place for over a decade with no successful casino gaming investment in Jamaica, the country having experienced the worst economic contraction in its history, and the need for increased economic activity and economic recovery.

“We don’t simply want to recover what we have lost — we want to recover stronger, we want to recover better,” Dr Clarke argued as he pitched the Bill titled ‘An Act to Amend the Casino Gaming Act’.

He noted that one of the recommendations of the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Task Force, which he chaired last year, was to promulgate amendments to the casino gaming legislation that will deliver results such as investments and jobs.

“Through dialogue with various stakeholders we are making amendments with the goal of having billions of US dollars of investments being made in Jamaica over the next few years. This will diversify our tourism product, diversify our arrival patterns and seasonal trends, and make Jamaica’s tourism product more resilient,” Dr Clarke said.

The amendments proposed to the Casino Gaming Act were aimed at making changes to the requirements which a prospective investor must meet, and with which the minister responsible for finance must be satisfied in order to declare an integrated resort development (IRD).

Under the Act, the IRDs are seen as developments consisting of a mix of various tourism amenities and facilities in the same precinct, he explained. These facilities include, but are not limited to, hotels, hotel rooms, villas, casinos, attractions, sporting facilities, entertainment facilities, service centres and shopping centres.

The IRDs are intended to be large-scale facilities, and are expected to strengthen Jamaica’s competitiveness in the tourism industry and bolster economic development through job creation, increased tax revenues, additional demand for locally produced goods, as well as serve as catalysts for new investments in Jamaica. They also offer opportunities for the developer in the niche luxury hotel rooms market.

He said that the concept is important in the Act, as the developments are seen as a means of enhancing and further expanding the tourism product and, by extension, would also be a means of contributing significantly to the country’s economy.

Currently, Section 9, Subsection (3) of the Act provides that the minister must not make an approved IRD order unless he is satisfied that, upon completion, the development will comprise one or more hotels providing, in total, at least 2,000 hotel rooms of which at least 1,000 are required to be available before the start of casino operations.