According to Edmund Bartlett, Tourism Minister of Jamaica, two Casino developments – Tavistock and Celebration Jamaica – alone are expected to create jobs for 25,000 workers. The target for completion of the casino developments is 2015. Bartlett said the Luxury and Casino hotels tend to have a higher employment ratio than traditional European Plan hotels [...]

Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, has reiterated the government’s position that Jamaica will not be converted into a casino destination. Speaking in the 2008/09 Sectoral Debate last week, Bartlett said casinos would form part of the “product enrichment”, which will be embedded in a mega-property development. “You will not see a casino dotting the landscape [...]

In a presentation of the government’s budget to Parliament in Kingston last week, Prime Minister Bruce Golding argued casino gambling would bring jobs, tourists and revenues to the island. However the Bishop of Jamaica, the Rt Rev and Hon Alfred Reid, along with leaders of the Council of Churches and the Evangelical Association have condemned [...]

Jamaica’S tourism players have shot down suggestions that the introduction of casino gaming will prompt a further increase in crime on the island. “Casino is an experience that has its own niche and a very powerful niche in terms of the ability to spend,” said tourism minister Ed Bartlett. “There can be no concern regarding [...]