At a town hall meeting at the Montego Bay Civic Centre yesterday, Prime Minister Bruce Golding stated that the debate in Parliament on the casino gambling legislation will begin next month.
“We spent a long time working on the draft, probably longer than we had hoped, but on Tuesday, Audley Shaw, the finance minister gave notice [...]

Just over a year since Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced that legislation to introduce casino gambling will be brought to Jamaica’s Parliament within months, this is still to happen, and now questions are being raised about one of the two expected investors. Celebration Jamaica, which reportedly had plans to develop a 65-acre property in Rose [...]

A bit of gambling (lottery) history for you. On May 8, 1972 (37 years ago), then Prime Minister Michael Manley announced in the House of Representatives, that Jamaica’s national lottery (which had been in operation for more than three years), is to be abolished. He said the lottery had “adverse effects upon the youths of [...]

Today’s Jamaica Observer newspaper features a casino editorial which speaks about ‘Preparing Jamaica for casino gambling’. An excerpt:
“There is no doubt in our minds that as the Government contemplates plugging the deep hole in the budget, the introduction of casino gaming will become an increasingly attractive option. We, for our part, don’t pretend to be [...]

A proposal by the Government and tourism interests to give all Jamaicans access to the large-scale casino gambling that is to be introduced in western Jamaica soon, has been blasted by University of the West Indies (UWI) academics who said the decision was not informed by the best interests of the country.
The heated difference of [...]

How’s this for a bit of the history of gambling in Jamaica. On March 20, 1944, Phillip Wong of a Duke Street address in Kingston, pleaded guilty in court to a breach of the Gambling Law (namely – selling peaka pow tickets). He was fined £20 or three months in prison. Wong was arrested during [...]

A critical step in the process of establishing casino gaming in Jamaica was taken yesterday with the tabling of a ministry paper (Ministry Paper number 3/2009) on the proposed gambling legislation in Parliament.
This newly tabled ministry paper has introduced the basis for the gambling legislation – the new Casino Gaming Act – with provisions for [...]

Dennis Constanzo, president of local developers, Palmyra Resort and Spa, is reportedly frustrated by delays in receiving his resort’s casino license. Prime Minister Bruce Golding had announced the award of licenses to Palmyra and Harmonisation Limited and the Palmyra earlier this year.
Palmyra’s development is set to become the island’s first casino hotel, and will reportedly [...]

Jamaica’s Finance Minister, the Hon. Audley Shaw, has announced that Cabinet is expected to approve policy governing casino gambling in Jamaica some time on Monday (December 1).
He indicated that in order to further stimulate the local tourism industry, Cabinet will give the policy the go ahead as quickly as possible.

Letter to the Gleaner Editor – published in print version of Gleaner on November 18, 2008
The editorial on casinos could not have been more on target. Jamaica’s tourism industry should be 10 times larger than it is and the Government should be doing everything in its power to help it grow. What are we waiting [...]