EVER SINCE independence, different governments, starting from that of Archbishop Makarios, have been toying with the idea of opening a casino in Cyprus. Each would build on the previous government’s work, making the opening of the casino an ongoing project, but the final decision has not been taken yet.
Over the years, foreign experts made proposals, ministerial committees studied them and made recommendations and different government departments worked out practicalities. A bill that would govern the operation of the casino was finally prepared a decade ago and the then government announced that it would invite tenders for the two licences on offer. It never asked for tenders and the bill was left to gather dust in some departmental filing cabinet.
But it seems that now Minister of Commerce George Lillikas is determined to get the bill passed and set up at least two casinos. This has become a pressing need after the opening of the checkpoints and the daily flow of Greek Cypriots to the casinos in the north. But this is not the only reason. The government, quite rightly, views the opening of casinos as an important element of its plans to upgrade the tourist product, in combination with the construction of more golf courses and marinas. Such facilities, it is believed, would not only attract tourists with a bigger disposable income, but also boost arrivals in the slow winter months.
Lillikas has already spoken to the political parties in order to persuade them to approve the bill. The only negative response was from AKEL, which has always opposed the operation of a casino on moral grounds and because of the supposedly adverse social consequences it would have. This is a puritanical communist party that wants to protect citizens from the temptations of gambling; as an official pointed out, AKEL did not want poor workers squandering their wages on the roulette table and leaving their families to starve.
This is utter nonsense, considering there are currently plenty of legal, as well as illegal, ways for a gambler to squander his wages. There is horse-racing, football betting, casinos in the north, illegal clubs hosting card games plus every kind of gambling imaginable on the internet. In short, neither AKEL nor SAKOP (the Association for Confronting Social Problems), which is also campaigning against the casino, would be protecting a gambler’s family by opposing the bill. It is totally hypocritical to oppose casinos but to have no problem with racing and football bets.
This is a free society which should treat people as responsible individuals instead of penalising the economy and those who are responsible, in order to protect those who are not. AKEL and other self-appointed do-gooders must realise that the age of the nanny-state is over and that there is no rational reason for opposing the opening of casinos.
