With President Bharrat Jagdeo signalling his intent to move ahead with casino legislation and calls for him to stand by his pledge to the religious community for full consultations, an intense debate is expected even as differences surface in the tourism community on the issue.

Stabroek News asked several heads of agencies and private sector bodies to share their views on the establishment of casinos following the recent announcement by President Jagdeo that legislation to enact casino gambling should be in place for Cricket World Cup 2007.

It should be noted that the three - Cathy Hughes, President of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), Indira Anandjit, Executive Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) and President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry Gerry Gouveia shared their personal views and not those of the associations they head.

Jagdeo was reported in the Kaieteur News as telling journalists on November 8 that he was going ahead with legislation for casino gambling in time for the CWC tournament which starts in March next year but only those hotels which have 250 rooms will qualify and only visitors to Guyana would be allowed to use the casinos initially.

However, in a previous meeting with members of the Christian community in early March this year, Jagdeo had said at the time that the government was contemplating, though no decision had been made, that no Guyanese would use the casino as some nationals do in their countries. He had said that it would not be like the Las Vegas type where anybody could walk off the street and go into a casino or like the Suriname model where nationals are allowed to gamble. "We are not even remotely contemplating that," he had said. He had also promised full consultation.

In a brief interview, Gouveia told Stabroek News on Friday that any casino legislation being enacted locally should not discriminate against Guyanese. "This is a serious discriminatory policy. We must not discriminate against Guyanese and somehow belittle ourselves. It is actually pronouncing on the intelligence and psyche of Guyanese meaning that we are not mature enough to be on the same par with foreigners. Our people must make mature choices. We are supposed to be one of the freest countries in the hemisphere - we have freedom of choice, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of literally everything."

Gouveia, who is also a hotelier, said that he finds it a paradox that Guyanese can leave and go to the casinos in neighbouring Suriname and use them and not be allowed to use those in Guyana.

If the government is to decide on casino gambling as one of the tools to use for economic development, he said that it certainly has to be done in a responsible manner, with all the oversight systems since casinos are known to be business opportunities for money laundering and harbouring criminal activity.

Stating that he was critical of the country's financial systems, he emphasized the need for "good oversight legal systems" to ensure monitoring of the casinos.

Gouveia, Anandjit and Hughes feel that casinos could create jobs and better paying jobs, as well but they all feel that whatever is done to create those jobs must be done in a responsible manner.

Spending power

Anandjit feels that apart from job creation, casinos would attract people with spending power and the local economy stands to benefit. With Guyana's natural attractions, she said that she cannot see local hoteliers just bringing guests to sit in the casinos all day and all night long without selling Guyana otherwise. She was positive they would be given the opportunity to sample Guyanese cuisine, experience the Guyanese way of life and visit its nature attractions including the Kaieteur Falls.

On the other hand, she said, "if high spenders come to Guyana and do not want to go driving through our nature trails or anything of that sort at least they have somewhere to spend their money. I see that as something very positive."

She feels that with casino legislation in place, the impetus to build big hotels and to market them would redound to the benefit of Guyana becoming a known tourist destination. Gouveia also shares this view and feels that at present the hotels do not market Guyana and as such the world does not know that Guyana exists.

He noted the example of the Iwokrama International Rainforest Conservation and Development project with its canopy walkway - the second largest in the world "which is a wonderful product" and which is operating at perhaps ".0001% of its capacity." He feels the canopy walkway is a national treasure like the Kaieteur Falls but there is little marketing of the product so that probably less than one per cent of the world's tourists know about Guyana's eco-tourist products.

Anandjit feels that casinos should, however, be set up in strategic places and not necessarily in the urban areas so that jobs would be created in less populated areas and the locals would stand to benefit. She said she has seen and known of good stories resulting from casinos in Belize, Suriname, Barbados and North America.

"I think it can be a positive thing for our people. It is just our mindset about something new like this to Guyana, as being negative. We have to change our own mindset towards things like this especially as our tourism industry grows," she said.

Gouveia said that those against the plan for the introduction of casino gambling should come up with a better plan to diversify the country's economy and tourism sector. "People are leaving Guyana by the thousands and going to countries that have casinos and other gambling outfits. So let us not have double standards. We need to create economic activities. I am not saying that we should create at all costs but our people are going to Venezuela, Suriname, the States, Canada where these very things exist. So why are we denying ourselves these choices in Guyana. It is a choice."

Niche market

Not sharing quite the same views as Anandjit and Gouveia, Hughes said that while THAG has had not canvassed the opinion of its members on casino gambling some members have expressed some concerns.

She does not feel that casinos are needed to attract visitors to Guyana and that Guyana has all the assets, particularly nature attractions, to create a niche market in areas such as bird-watching, fishing and even yachting in fresh waters - which is now being developed for the Essequibo River. Nature and adventure tourism, she contends has begun to take root in Guyana and "it has so much to offer."

She said that while casino gambling has its positives and negatives the negative social consequences as well as the illegal dealings including money laundering were well known, "so why should Guyana take the risks to invite the negative consequences" when adhering to control mechanisms was not a strong point of Guyana's law enforcement.

Hughes feels that Guyana could take a lesson from neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago where the government was moving to ban certain casino gambling activities.

While President Jagdeo is reported to have said that only 250-room hotels and those accredited as four-star hotels would be allowed to operate casinos, it should be noted that for the Cricket World Cup 2007 only Buddy's International Hotel and Resort at Providence, next to the cricket stadium would qualify for casino gambling.

In a brief telephone exchange, proprietor of Buddy's Prakash Shivraj, also known as Buddy, told Stabroek News that the hotel was interested in setting up a casino but nothing could be done unless legislation was in place.

Shivraj said that Guyana does not have the blue waters and white sands to attract certain tourists and some of the big spenders would not want to trek through Guyana's rainforests so the casino would offer the alternative.

He noted that every business would have its good and bad but with control mechanisms he feels that the good should prevail. When asked for details on the upsides and downsides of casinos, he declined to comment.

The religious community in Guyana has to date condemned the introduction of casino gambling in Guyana stating that evidence does not support it bringing in revenue that could be used to improve the social circumstances of the people. Bishop Juan Edghill had told Stabroek News at the time that "I don't believe in gambling in any form because it is addictive and leads to a lot of societal illsā€¦Viewed in the light of national development there has to be widespread consultations with all the stakeholders".

Draft bill

The issue of casino gambling surfaced in the Rupununi in December 2004 when a developer sought to raise the idea with the business community and residents there. Stabroek News has been unable to get hold of a copy of the draft casino bill which is said to be in circulation.

Stabroek News made enquiries at the Attorney General's Chambers and the Ministry of Legal Affairs but to no avail. No one in authority at the relevant agencies or ministries which should be dealing with the issue of the legislation appeared to have knowledge of it. This newspaper has been told that a draft of a copy modelled after Barbados' and Suriname's laws was being looked at by select persons.

Meanwhile, the opposition PNCR has reiterated its concerns about Jagdeo's unilateral announcement to legalize casino gambling as yet another example of the failure of the PPP/C administration to honour its pledge to have consultations with stakeholders.