Reports
CARIBBEAN - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominicus in Romana on the southeast coast of the Dominican Republic, a tourist destination that includes the Bayahibe, Dominicus, and Casa de Campo resort areas. Te Dominicus, which opened in 2007 and was renovated in 2010, provides Las Vegas style gaming and offers night time entertainment to the many hotels in the surrounding area.
Another major operator is Canadian owned Dream casinos which owns 12 casinos in the Dominican Republic and has also set up a wide number of sports betting outlets and began its operations in 2011. However last year the company was hit by a wide reaching scandal involving an alleged contract hit put on a casino manager and allegations that the owners of the company, brothers Antonio and Francesco Carbone and Andrew Pajak, had ties to organised crime. On the instructions of President Danilo Medina, the National District Prosecutor, the Chief of Police, the Attorney General of the Republic and other state security agencies have been commissioned with investigating the allegations, which revolve around the operation of the Dream casinos.
According to local press, the company has invested US$107m in the island and employs 1,000 people locally. Te judge overseeing the case sent Antonio Carbone, for one year in pre-
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trial detention on allegations that he had ordered the killing of company administrator of Dream Casino Corporation, Fernando Baez, who the brothers had fallen out with. According to reports in local press Antonio Carbone was arrested last year while trying to leave the country.
Carbone and his brother Francesco, set up a computerised betting system that according to local sources led to billionaire Michael DeGroote to invest US$112m in the company. However, in 2012, Mr. DeGroote launched a lawsuit against the owners arguing that they had misappropriated large amounts of the money he had lent them.
As a result of the revelations that the business may have had ties to the mob the Canadian businessman Degroote, has chosen not to continue to invest in the country or to continue to risk capital as the Carbone brothers, according to local reports, had wanted to seize it through illegal methods.
SPORTS BETTING AND SLOT PARLOURS Gaming machines outside of casinos are only
permitted in sports betting shops. Sports betting has been permitted since 1991 when the government placed the industry under the supervision of the Sports Ministry (Secretaria de
Estado de Deportes, Educacion Fisica y Recreacion) which was granted permission to grant licences and oversee the industry. However, the law was amended in 2006 to rule that slot machines could only be present in sport betting shops or in casinos. Before then slot machines were widely present in grocery shops and other small businesses. 30 per cent of money generated by slot machines in sports betting shops goes to the Sports Ministry.
Today, sports betting licences are granted by the Sports Ministry in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance. Meanwhile the National Casino and Gaming Board is responsible for authorising slot machines at sports betting shops. Sports betting shops must be located at a minimum distance of 500 metres from one another.
Sports betting is extremely popular in the Dominican Republic and the industry has grown at a fast pace. Teir number increased by 74 per cent from 800 in 2000, to 1,393 in 2006, according to statistics released jointly by the Ministry of Sports and the National Federation of Lottery Betting Parlors (FENEBANCA)
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