Haiti achieved its independence in a revolution against the French army in 1804. Haiti is the oldest black republic in the world, and, next to the United States, it is the oldest independent country in the Western Hemisphere. The “independence” must be qualified. The people of Haiti have not enjoyed a democratic freedom during many of its years. Most of its rulers have been dictators, and the country has remained under the commercial domination of many nations during its history.
In 1915 U.S. President Woodrow Wilson feared that other countries might invade Haiti because of its foreign debt. He sought to enforce the Monroe Doctrine before it could be breached. Therefore, he had the U.S. Marines invade Haiti. They occupied the country until 1934. Although depriving the people of their autonomous status, the presence of U.S. troops did lead to an eradication of yellow fever and also to the construction of roads and a sewerage system. Governmental instability ensued when the marines left, but in 1957 stability returned with the election of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier as president. In 1964 he declared himself president for life. Upon his death in 1971, his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, became the dictator.
In 1960 Papa Doc Duvalier guided the national legislature in passing a casino law. The timing was appropriate. Operators who were being thrown out of Cuba were seeking new venues. In truth the 1960 legislation was just a piece of paper that would justify Duvalier’s invitation for new casino entrepreneurs to come on in and make an offer. One casino, the International, had been established on the waterfront in Port-au-Prince in 1949. It had a reputation of being a Mob house from the start.
The 1960 law was not intended to be followed to the letter, if at all. The law provided that casinos could only be in hotels with 200 rooms. There were no such hotels in the entire country then, and there are none now. At least two casinos, in addition to the International, were free-standing gaming halls unattached to any hotel. The casinos could have only seven table games, and the games allowed were specified. The major casinos in operation in 1989 during my tour of the country had fifteen or more table games. They also had games that were not authorized. Additionally the casinos had slot machines.
Licenses for casino gaming were supposed to be granted by the minister of commerce. At the time of licensing the operators were supposed to present a deposit of $50,000 to the government to be held in the Central State Bank. This earnest money was to be returned to the operators when the casino actually began conducting gaming activity. One of the operators in 1989 had gone through the licensing procedure for his property. When I asked about the law, he laughed. He said the deposit was not $50,000, it was $250,000. The deposit was not given to the minister of commerce; it was given directly to Baby Doc Duvalier (when he was in power). The deposit was not returned to the casino when it began operations; it was never seen again.
The law provided that the casinos would pay an annual fee of $1,000 plus a tax of 40 percent on the gaming win. Individual casinos would work with the government to negotiate certain expenses that could be deducted from the tax obligation. The tax had been paid in the past. When Baby Doc was deposed in a coup d’etat in 1985, the tax collectors no longer came to the casinos. The operator that I interviewed in 1989 indicated that he had not paid taxes since the Duvaliers had been exiled. During the earlier years of the law, an additional 5 percent tax had been levied on players when they cashed in their chips – when they won. This tax was earmarked for the construction of the Duvalier International Airport in Port-au-Prince. When the airport was finally constructed, the tax collector no longer asked for the player win tax.
The Chaucon, a thatched roof casino in Petionville, near Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Foreigners were permitted to own the casinos; in fact, that was the desire of the government. They could have foreign dealers, but to do so, they had to get special work cards from the government for an undetermined price.
In 1989, during my visit, there were five casinos in the Port-au-Prince area. One, the Club 54 in the suburb of Petionville, was owned by Haitians. It was operating but in poor condition. As I entered the gaming area, a hen and four little chicks walked across the floor. The leading property was the El Rancho. It was also located in Petionville and was attached to a hotel with 125 rooms. A thatched-roof casino without a hotel was located on the main square of Petionville. The Chaucon was owned by Mike McLaney, an American who had previously been involved with Cuban and Bahamian casinos. He had held the concession for the International from 1969 to 1976. In the capital city a small casino operated at a Holiday Inn, and a larger casino was at the eighty-five-room Royal Haitian Hotel. The casino, which opened in 1973, was also owned by McLaney. The International, enclosed by a chain-link fence, was in disrepair and out of business. It had been closed since McLaney gave it up in 1976.
In 1989 there were very few players at any of the facilities. In previous times – during the stable years of the Duvalier dictators – cruise ships touring the Caribbean would stop in Port-au-Prince, but by 1989 they no longer did so. A few stopped on the northern coast of Haiti, but there were no casinos there. Cruise ships ceased stopping in Haiti at all later in 1989. One week after my tour of the casinos, there was a coup d’etat, and gunfire filled crowded streets on which I had walked from the national palace to the International. Any chance of growing markets for the casinos ended with the gunfire.
Since 1989 there have been almost no tourists in Haiti. I may have been the last casino tourist. The government disintegrated into near anarchy, and in 1994, the U.S. Marines once again landed in order to preserve something – certainly not the U.S. casino property. The marines are still there.
Casino gaming is no longer of any importance. There may be some play from local residents, but the outward signs of poverty suggest things would be otherwise.