Two to four casinos considered optimal
The Israeli Finance and Tourism Ministries have conducted formal studies on a possible casino complex in the Red Sea resort of Eilat. But some industry observers say the speculation about casinos in Israel is all talk, and the project has little chance of getting off the ground.
Sources say the studies indicate a casino would be a big moneymaker, attracting more than 2 million visitors annually and generating $US336 million in revenue its first year alone—a figure that could grow to US$500 million after several years of operation.
Experts reports that Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin wants four casinos on a thoroughfare reminiscent of the Las Vegas Strip. That resort could create 11,000 new jobs, and according to the ministries, the upside would far outweigh “the social costs involved in making casino gambling legal in Israel and in Eilat.”
But WCD reports that a similar plan in the 1990s was easily defeated. At the time, Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson floated the idea of a Sands casino in the country; despite his longtime association with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Adelson could not overcome opposition from religious groups and Israeli law enforcement.
Another project that came to fruition—the Oasis Casino in Jericho—opened in 1998, but two years later was closed “for security reasons” by the Israeli army. Before that, two attempts by then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to open casinos failed.
According to Globes, Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon has said the speculation about a casino in Eilat is premature. On a morning news program, Kahlon said, “Everyone knows that there won’t be a casino … It was obviously just a ridiculous rumor, because there won’t be a casino.”
