Many Caribbean jurisdictions have casino gaming facilities. Lotteries are also in operation on larger islands that have major population concentrations. Casino gambling is offered in approximately twenty jurisdictions. Major events in the expansion of casinos in the region include the closing of casino operations in other places—a crackdown on illegal casinos in the United States in the 1950s, Castro’s Cuban revolution in 1959, London’s casino reforms in 1968. Each of the casino locations follows different regulations for casinos with different taxation structures and different enforcement policies. Overall, it might be suggested that there is considerable laxity in regulation. A tradition of laissez-faire oversight has been generated by the fact that casino gaming was, in several places, initiated by operators from other jurisdictions—such as Cuba and early Nevada—who had operated with limited enforcement in those jurisdictions. Also, the purpose of gaming in the Caribbean region has been to draw in tourists whose economic activity outside the casinos provided the greatest level of benefits to the jurisdiction—greater than could be provided by direct taxation. Casinos are seen as an added attraction that fills an entertainment void for the majority of tourists, particularly in evening hours. The tourists come for beach attractions and occupy daytime hours outside the casinos. The nature of their travels suggests that they have only limited hours for gaming activity. The relatively high expenses for hotel rooms and transportation also provide impediments to the development of the region as a place for mass crowds of gamblers.
Although efforts to establish casinos persist in the noncasino jurisdictions of the region, several factors seriously obstruct the opportunities for successful casinos. One factor is government stability. Financial institutions that are necessary for capital investments generally lack confidence in the island locations owing to traditional and ongoing political problems. As governments change, taxation policies also change, adding to the instability of business conditions. A second problem is that most of the jurisdictions do not have formal specialized gaming control boards. In most cases, a minister of finance oversees gambling along with his or her other duties. Without specialized government regulation, casino management controls the honesty of games. The managers also control the size of the bank—how much money they have on hand. Cases of cheating against the players or failing to pay off wins have occurred. A third difficulty arises from a lack of a coherent policy on development of the casino industry. Governments (or politicians) may greedily desire the fees that come with licenses for casinos, and accordingly, they may license too many facilities. Markets can be saturated, making profits very difficult for most casinos.
Several of the island nations are newly independent, and as such, the local populations resent the notion of having foreign entrepreneurs on their soil. They may resent any suggestions that the casino operators offer regarding the manner in which the casino conducts business. This situation has an impact on the labor forces available for the resorts. Jurisdictions may require that hires be taken from a native workforce that might be totally inadequate for the tasks at hand. Many of the populations have been agriculturally based, and commercial work habits, such as following daily work schedules, have been lacking. This means that the casinos have to engage in conducting long training sessions. Also, it may be very difficult for a casino operated by “foreigners” to fire or discipline local workers if they are inefficient or even if they are dishonest. The concept of manana has become very much a part of some operations, causing customer service goals to trail the recreational interests of the employees. Sometimes resentment against foreign casino owners is transformed into resentment against the customers.
El Rancho Casino, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Another factor that causes some difficulties to gaming operatives in the Caribbean region is currency exchange. This is usually overcome by having all gambling transactions conducted in dollars. Problems may then be posed by government policies restricting exportation of dollars (either in player wins or owner’s profits). Import duties can be overwhelming to the casinos during construction and furnishing phases of start-ups.
The casinos encounter marketing problems, as costs can be very high. The costs of travel are high owing to a lack of direct flights into major U.S. cities; all tourist products are expensive, as they must be imported. Moreover, tourism is seasonal in all the jurisdictions. One additional seasonal difficulty is presented by severe (and potentially catastrophic) weather at the end of the summer season each year. The weather problems only exacerbate the inadequacies of island infrastructure—airports, roads, water, and power supplies.
All the above factors make casino gambling a risky commercial business in most of the Caribbean region. Nonetheless, many operators seem willing to give gambling a try in most places where it is legal. One exception seems to be the Virgin Islands, which legalized casinos as a result of an election in 1995. No company has presented an application for a license in this new “wide-open” venue. The intervening years have witnessed two major hurricanes that have dampened investor optimism.
The Virgin Islands are at the eastern end of the Greater Antilles. On the western end, Cuba has no casinos, and Jamaica has permitted slot machine gaming but has resisted other casino gaming. Haiti has had several casinos, but severe political turmoil culminating in a U.S. military invasion and occupation in 1994 has effectively ended casino operations. There is some effective casino gaming in both Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. To the north of the Greater Antilles (technically outside of the Caribbean basin), the Bahamas have some profitable operations as well. Also to the north, Grand Turks Islands and the Caicos Islands have one small casino in a resort hotel. Most of the islands in the Caribbean region welcome operators of Internet gaming beamed toward the United States and focusing upon gambling on sports events.
In the Lesser Antilles, the Leeward Islands of St. Martin, St. Kitts (formerly St. Christopher)–Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda all have casinos. St. Martin is a divided island, one-half being a subprefecture under French control; the other part—the Netherlands Antilles—is under control of The Hague. The Windward Islands of Martinique, Saint Vincent, Saint Lucia, and Guadeloupe have casino gaming, as do each of the “ABC” islands in the south Caribbean—Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire.
There have been unsuccessful efforts to place casinos on other island nations and dependencies of the Caribbean, including Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, the Grenadines, and Grenada. Either investors with ample resources to make it all work would not step forth (considering the multiple disadvantages listed above), or the governments could not be persuaded that they wanted this kind of foreign investment and potential foreign control over their island economies.