Jamaica to start casino, but no intention to become a casino hub

Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism of Jamaica has announced that the first licensed casino will start functioning in the country by 2020. But he said that the country has no plans to become a casino destination.

“We have shied away from gaming as a structured path of the tourism experience for a long time for a number of reasons, one of which has been the experiences that we have looked at in other places and we have seen some of the attendant negatives and we question very much whether or not we would be able ourselves to manage and be able to deal with the negative impact of it,” said Bartlett.

While he agreed that adding more casinos would be beneficial for the local economy, he said that Jamaica does not necessarily need them in order to keep growing. “The fact is that casino for Jamaica is not a requirement for our growth but within the context of the integrated development model, casino gaming is a driver for exponential growth so we do not see Jamaica ever becoming a casino destination but rather a destination in which casino gaming is available,“ he added.