THE DEBATE about the opening of a casino has become an annual fixture on the political calendar. Every 12 months or so, deputies initiate a debate about opening casinos, newspapers carry some opinion pieces and the matter is then forgotten until the next time the matter is brought up at the House Commerce Committee.
This joke has been going on for almost 20 years. The Clerides government had announced it would give two casino licences, but eventually changed its mind, because there was huge interest and its decision would have disappointed too many people. The Papadopoulos government also toyed with the idea – its commerce minister included the opening of casinos in the five-year strategy for improving the tourist product – but dropped it after objections were voiced.
The objections came from the senior member of the government alliance, Demetris Christofias, who thundered that he would never agree to the opening of casinos, which destroyed families and caused untold misery to the victims. As president he remains as resolutely opposed to the idea as he had always been, but this did not stop deputies from raising the issue again last Monday.
The president’s dogmatic opposition to casinos may be related to the puritanical brand of communism he embraces, but it does not seem to extend to other forms of gambling. Cyprus probably has the highest concentration of football betting shops, in proportion to its population, in the world, but he has never entertained the idea of closing these down.
There is a plethora of options for the gambler – there is horse racing, there are countless cafes and bars with fruit machines, there are illegal card-playing clubs and now we also have the electronic casinos. Anyone could walk into the latter, pay for credit and then bet on a roulette table on the computer screen. Need we mention the gambling that takes place in every neighbourhood coffee-shop?
In short, there is no shortage of places where a compulsive gambler can easily squander his family’s savings. Now, he also has the option of crossing over to the north where there are dozens of casinos to gamble away the family home. This has made the opening of casino a patriotic imperative, as several deputies pointed out. According to them, Greek Cypriots are shoring up the economy of the north by spending about €100 million in the casinos every year.
But depriving the north of funds is not the only argument in favour of opening a casino. Operating casinos would not only bring in high-spending tourists (a respectable number of Israelis arrive in Cyprus simply to gamble in the north) but it would increase the state’s tax revenue as the gambling would be taxed; it could also raise significant amounts by selling the licences to the highest bidder.
There is no rational justification for the government’s opposition to casinos, but given the president’s dogmatic position, we will be having the same inconclusive discussion in a year’s time.
