BARBADOS’ POSITION ON casino gambling remains unchanged and Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy says it is time to have an open and frank discussion on the matter minus the emotion.
Noting that Aruba, the only country in the Caribbean to register a better arrival rate than Barbados, had benefited from casino gambling in its tourism sector, the minister said the administration would “take a look at it some time”.
“We have allowed vessels once they are prepared to stay in the Port for the appropriate length of time, to open their casinos.
“You may recall that when that legislation was introduced, there was outcry by a few. The howls were not great and I believe that we can take a look at the issue again but I have expressed the view that when we are going to the public for some input on this issue of gaming within the context of tourism that we also need to have some empirical work done on how it has worked in some jurisdictions and how have they benefited,” he told the press during a briefing at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
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