mJamaica Ltd was granted provisional approval to develop a resort casino located in Montego Bay in 2015. A total of $1.8bn would be invested in the complex, which would directly employ 12,000 people once it was up and running. Celebration Jamaica, owned by property developer Robert Trotta, said that it would invest US$500m in the first phase. In addition to the hotel, the first phase of the development encompassed an entertainment complex with a multitude of facilities to include a full-service casino with table gaming and slot machines.
Te integrated resort development would have consisted of several main buildings and structures containing 1,000 hotel rooms under phase one, with further expansion of an additional 1,000 hotel rooms under phase two. It would also have housed a state of the art entertainment complex with a 75,000 square-foot casino and sports book; hotel with a lobby lounge overlooking the Caribbean Sea; bars, restaurants, health club, spa and kid’s club, and retail space.
Another provisional licence was granted to Harmony Cove Limited in Trelawny. Harmony Cove said that it would invest US$970m in its first wave of development with 1,000 hotel rooms, restaurants and
P52 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
Jamaica Ltd was
granted provisional approval to develop a resort casino located in Montego Bay in 2015. A total of $1.8bn would be invested in the
complex, which would directly employ 12,000 people once it was up and running.
Celebration Jamaica, owned by property developer Robert Trotta, said that it would invest US$500m in the first phase.
retail shops, a casino, golf courses, a luxury spa, marina facilities and convention facilities.
Harmony Cove was a partnership made up of state-owned Harmonisation Limited, with 49 per cent, and private-sector partner Tavistock Group, a global investment company, with 51 per cent. Shareholders in Harmonisation included the Development Bank of Jamaica and the National Housing Trust.
Neither project came to fruition as both failed to secure the required capital requirements. According to the government, Celebration failed to meet the deadline to start construction on the land which it had agreed to buy from the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) a government agency which leads strategic and the sustainable development of real estate. Meanwhile Harmony Cove also missed deadlines and failed to break ground for any building.
THE CASINO GAMING (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2021
Te failure of both projects to get off the ground caused the government to change its position on licence requirements. In June 2021 the government passed new regulations under Te Casino
Gaming (Amendment) Act, 2021. As part of these changes the room capacity requirement for IRDs went from 2,000 hotel rooms to 1,000 while the minimum capital investment was set to $500m.
Other amendments allowed for the inclusion of rooms already under construction prior to the making of the application as part of the projected number of rooms. Te amended act also did away with the requirement that 500 of the constructed rooms had to be luxury rooms.
Tat same year the application process began with a 10-member team tasked with evaluating applications. Te ultimate decision for the granting of a licence rested solely with the finance minister and a number of zones dotted throughout the island were chosen by the government where casinos could be constructed as part of the new IR's.
Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Nigel Clarke, said that the bill had been amended with the goal of having, hopefully, billions of US dollars in investments being made in Jamaica over the next few years. “We don’t simply want to recover what we have lost; we want to recover stronger; we want to recover better. As such, one of the
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