Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, has indicated that the Government expects to award the first casino licence this year, and that construction on Jamaica’s first casino is expected to commence by year-end as well. As he addressed a media breakfast yesterday for local and international journalists attending Caribbean Marketplace 2011 at the Montego Bay [...]

A recent Don Anderson poll has found that Jamaicans are sharply divided on the long controversial issue of gambling. 500 persons, aged 18 years and over, from all parts of the island, were surveyed between between May 3 and 14 this year. The poll was conducted on behalf of the Ecumenical Family Life Council in [...]

Cabinet has now endorsed the appointment of five members to the Casino Gaming Commission: 1) Dennis Lalor (insurance executive and horse racing enthusiast) 2) Mark Roberts (digital printing businessman) 3) Afeef Lazarus (attorney-at-law) 4) Dennis Edmunds (Attorney-at-law) 5) Raphael Gordon (Chartered accountant and deputy chairman of Caymanas Track Ltd.). Their tenure will extend for two [...]

Following passage in both houses of parliament last month (March 2010), the bill to legislate casino gambling in Jamaica was signed into law recently by the Governor General, Sir Patrick Allen. Some of the next steps to be taken with regarding to casino gambling in Jamaica: Finance Minister’s appointment date notice in the Gazette Establishment [...]

In today’s Sunday Gleaner newspaper, economist Dennis Morrison joins the ongoing debate about legalizing casinos in Jamaica, and talks about the downside of casinos – the downside risks of casino gaming that one would have expected. Singapore is compared to Jamaica, as he takes a look at some of the problems associated with casinos being [...]

People’s National Party Member of Parliament, Phillip Paulwell, has expressed concerns that Jamaica may have to import labour for the casinos which will be established once casino gaming becomes legal here in Jamaica. He raised the point during yesterday’s meeting of the committee deliberating the Bill establishing the regulatory framework for casino gaming in luxury-integrated [...]

The long-awaited legislation that will pave the way for casino gambling here in Jamaica, is to be tabled in Parliament next week Tuesday (October 27), with debate on the bill to begin shortly after. The legislation had previously been tabled in the House of Representatives in July 2008, but was withdrawn and amended after consultations [...]

Speaking yesterday at the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry quarterly luncheon at the Wexford hotel in Montego Bay, St. James, University of the West Indies Deputy Principal Joseph Pereira said that the introduction of casino gambling can do no more harm to Jamaica than has already been caused. According to Pereira, “I don’t [...]

Today’s editorial in the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper, cuts to the chase saying that Jamaica needs to move ahead quickly with the casino law, so that the country can reap the benefits – such as the generation of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity. The editorial begins – “It is [...]

The following letter to the Editor was featured in today’s Jamaica Observer newspaper: Dear Editor, On June 30, 2009 I wrote to you advising that the Government of Jamaica, insisting that an investment of US$1.5 billion including a minimum of 2,000 rooms was required to obtain a casino licence, was asking for too much and [...]