The region that hosted Cyprus’ first casino back in the 19th century is hoping history is on its side when it comes to winning a license in the 21st.
Dhervis Charalambous, a leader of the town of Kritou Terra in Paphos, said reopening a casino would rejuvenate the area, which has some two-dozen villages.
The financial crisis that overwhelmed the eastern Mediterranean island two years ago and required an EU bailout has prompted the government to pursue casino legalization to grow foreign tourism to help revive the economy.
Charalambous said a casino would create 1,400 or more jobs in the region. “We are trying to keep the community going,” he said.
Kritou Terra’s government has written to the president, parliament and cabinet officials extolling the region’s large inventory of developable land with road access and water and power.
History also figures in its pitch. The village website describes in some detail the casino that once graced the town in the waning days of Ottoman rule. The building that housed it still stands.
“The visitors were mostly Turkish but also the elite of the Middle East,” Charalambous said.
The owner was an enterprising Egyptian immigrant named Savvas Makrides who, the site says, “dared to do the unthinkable for the time by bringing women from Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, who did belly dancing at the casino while the customers were playing cards and gambling in general”.
