The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian casino industry can “double the size of the win” if proposed reforms are enacted, a senior hotel executive saying it would give this nation “bragging rights” in attracting new and current gamblers.

Fresh from a joint government-private sector trip to Singapore for the International Association of Gaming Advisors’ summit, Robert Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice-president of government and external affairs, said that jurisdiction’s casino model “paralleled” that of the Bahamas.

That model, he added, provided “a road map to success” for casino gaming in the Bahamas, and Mr Sands expressed confidence that the Government was on target to enact promised reforms by the 2013 first quarter.

While Singapore’s casino gaming industry had “a rigid structure”, with just two such facilities operating as part of integrated resorts, Mr Sands said they “encapsulate a lot of the initiatives we’re trying to put in place here in the Bahamas”.

“Singapore almost parallels the Bahamas in terms of two major casinos in their jurisdiction,” he told Tribune Business in a recent interview. “We have two major casinos here with resorts attached to them being very successful.”

Singapore’s integrated resort/casino gaming model offered “a road map to the success of the Bahamas jurisdiction”, Mr Sands said.

He added that the Bahamian casino industry had “every reason to believe” the Government was working to get the proposed reforms implemented by the 2013 first quarter.

No major reforms to the Bahamas’ casino gaming legislation have been made since the Lotteries and Gaming Act was first enacted in 1969.

The Bahamas Hotel Association (BHA) has focused heavily on incorporating technology into the gaming experience. It noted that New Jersey and Nevada had taken the lead on mobile gaming, allowing guests to place wagers using cell phone and handheld devices from anywhere on the casino property.

Nevada had also introduced technology that allowed casinos to accept bets while sporting events were underway, with major jurisdictions all having at least looked at allowing casinos to offer online, proxy and/or interactive gaming.

The BHA and its casino committee believe providing similar technology-based offerings will allow the Bahamas to compete with Florida and other emerging gaming markets.

Mr Sands told Tribune Business of the reforms: “There are two issues. It would allow current casinos to implement programmes that generate new revenue streams from our operations.

“By the levelling of the playing field, it will allow those operations to attract incremental business. In this environment of casino operations, it puts us in a highly favourable competitive position going forward.

“It expands the customer base, and frankly puts us in a position to attract potential customers we have not been able to attract before.”

Efficiencies and employment opportunities would be created, Mr Sands said, adding: “It puts the Bahamas in a position of bragging rights in terms of recurrent customer demand and attracting new customers, and allows casino operators to be ever more bigger contributors to the Government’s tax base in terms of gaming revenues.

“We believe there is an opportunity to double the size of the win, and that in itself will further develop opportunities in terms of employment. I think we can almost triple current gaming revenues.”

Gaming gross revenues in the Bahamas are around $146 million, and the Government’s tax take from the industry has, in recent years, dropped from $17 million to $12 million.

Among the other reform proposals are for high-end gaming suites and private salons for high-end clients, mirroring Macau, Nevada and Singapore. The BHA is also pushing for credit liberalisation, enhanced casino debt collection, junket standards revision and a more efficient resolution of casino disputes.

It wants to permit the import of new gaming equipment, approvals of new formats and games, and is seeking a three-year - rather than annual - casino vetting process for improved administrative efficiency in regulation.