Virtually Jamaica

Updated Article: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080423/lead/lead3.html

 My 2 Cents:  I know how a lot of people feel about bringing gambling to Jamaica and how it will increase the GDP, enhance the tourism product and inject much needed cash into the Jamaican economy.  I still feel that even with all of the benefits it will bring there are a lot of pit-falls that have to be taken into consideration. 

I personally have never liked the idea but understand the need for growth & diversification in this increasingly competitive market.  Also I guess it is better to have it above water and controlled…we will have to see…

Golding

Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter

CASINO GAMBLING could soon become legal in Jamaica. The Government has given approval for a group of international investors to establish the island’s first legal casino.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding is expected to announce the decision and provide details during his presentation in the Budget Debate on Tuesday.

Government sources say the first casino is to be established at a new hotel to be constructed in Montego Bay, St James. According to the sources, the new hotel will have more rooms than any now operating in the island, and will employ thousands of Jamaicans.

Multibillion-US-dollar development

“It will be more than 3,000, and could have as many as 4,000 rooms. However, the multibillion-US-dollar development will not take place if there is no casino attached,” the sources explained. The sources refused to name the developers, only saying that it was an international group with a good track record of operating hotels and casinos.

“This will be a major part of the Government’s drive to create jobs and more jobs and spur economic growth,” the Government sources added.

Efforts to get an official comment from the administration were unsuccessful as The Sunday Gleaner was encouraged to await the prime minister’s presentation in the Budget Debate. Speaking from China, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett refused to comment on the reports, also pointing to the prime minister’s pending address.

Bartlett has made no secret of his support for the introduction of casinos and, in January, described as hypocritical, the campaign against casino gambling. He argued that the interest groups, which have been lobbying against the official introduction of casino gambling, are silent on other forms of betting, gaming and lotteries. According to Bartlett, the Jamaica Labour Party government will not renege on commitments made by the previous People’s National Party (PNP) administration to give the country’s first casino licence to an undisclosed group of foreign investors.

Ongoing controversy

Jamaica has legalised slot and other gaming machines throughout the country, with gaming lounges being opened in several places. But the ongoing controversy over casinos prevented the previous administration from going the full way.

However, the PNP made it clear it was leaning in that direction after a 2003 study, commissioned by the party, recommended adopting casino gambling as a way of enhancing the tourism product. In 2006, it appeared that the PNP government had committed to the concept of a casino resort, complete with sports book, table games and slot machines.

This was to have a rider that the legal limit of 1,000 machines per location would be surpassed if the hotel had more than 1,000 rooms

Jamaica Gleaner News – BRUCE ROLLS DICE – Government gives green light to casinos – Sunday | April 20, 2008

published: Thursday | March 20, 2008

WESTERN BUREAU:

A large company in Montego Bay, St James, is the most recent business to be caught with illegal connections to the Jamaica Public Service Company’s (JPS) distribution lines.

It has since been deemed that the company owes $50 million for the electricity used.

JPS has confirmed that, in February, representatives of its Loss Reduction Team discovered a direct connection to JPS lines at the location during an investigation.

Will not disclose details

While the light and power company says it does not disclose details of customers’ accounts to the public, The Gleaner understands that the company in question is the National Asset Recovery Services (NARS), which operates from the Montego Freeport area.

"We are not issuing a statement," executive assistant at NARS, Angelita Whyte, told this newspaper when queries were made into the matter.

According to Winsome Callum, corporate communications manager at JPS, the Montego Bay police were alerted to the discovery of illegal abstraction of electricity at the location, and that the company "will be taking steps to recover for the electricity used illegally at the premises".

NARS’s contact centre began operations in Jamaica on June 9, 2003, and employs more than 800 persons.

According to its website, the company is based in St Louis, Missouri, in the United States, and from its contact centres in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, NARS offers default, customer care and electronic services to major financial, consumer and service companies.

A release issued by JPS states that it continues an aggressive campaign to reduce electricity theft among both residential customers and businesses.

Jamaica Gleaner News – Montego Bay firm owes $50m for electricity – Thursday | March 20, 2008

Christopher Anand, managing partner for Tavistock.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, March 20, 2008 - Officials in Jamaica are waiting to see if a major tourism development planned for the island will be affected following the news that one of the men involved in the initiative will lose hundreds of millions of dollars in the recent buyout of United States investment bank, Bear Stearns by competitor JPMorgan Chase and Company.

The Harmony Cove project planned for over 1,000 hotel rooms, 11 manor homes on five-acre lots, 88 villas, and 60 condominiums in a luxury tourism resort in the parish of Trelawny. Government partnered with the Florida-based Tavistock Group on the project.

But reports out of the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) have indicated that British-born currency trader, Joe Lewis who is the principal shareholder in the Group was estimated to lose over US$1 billion in his investment in Bear Stearns, the fifth-biggest investment bank in the US.

The Harmony Cove project which was announced since 2004 was expected to take 10 years to complete at a cost of US$2 billion.

According to the reports, the multi-billionaire in the last six months bought enough stock to become the firm’s largest shareholder, with a nine per cent stake by year-end.

US regulatory filings indicated that he paid more than US$100 each for the majority of his 12.14 million shares. JP Morgan has struck a deal to buy Bear Stears for a basement price of $339 million, or US$2.32 a share.

However, Bloomberg has reported that the 71-year-old investor may push the bank to consider alternatives to the JPMorgan buyout.

It reported Lewis as saying he would take "whatever action" he thought necessary to protect his investment.

"I think it’s a derisory offer and I don’t think they will get it," CNBC quoted Lewis as saying about the JPMorgan bid announced on March 16.

Business: News in the Caribbean – Caribbean360.com