Tourism minister tags casino bill as primary goal
Yitzhak Aharonovitch confident Tourism Ministry will be able to start building Eilat casino within few months, plans future gambling establishments in Mitzpe Ramon, northern Israel
"The casino is one of the ministry's top priorities for 2008. If we can make it a tourist attraction in Eilat, we'll build new casinos in Mitzpe Ramon, the Dead Sea and maybe even in northern Israel," Aharonovitch told Ynet.
Aharonovitch, a retired commander in the police force, has been trying to push for the building of a legal casino in Israel for the past several months and is optimistic that the government will approve his initiative.
Gambling at sea (Illustration Photo: AFP)
"As a former officer of law enforcement I can say with confidence that a casino will cut back on the scale of illegal gambling and the criminal activity surrounding it.
"That's my real goal, to crack down on illegal gambling. Israel has hundreds of illegal gambling establishments and there is very little done about it," he added.
The question of whether or not Israel should license casinos has been examined repeatedly over the past 20 years, with two government committees and a third belonging to the Lottery Commission (Mifal Hapayis). The Gavish Committee, formed in 1995, finally determined that a casino should be built in Israel.
Ahoy gamblers
Those wishing to place their bets used to do so in the casino operating in Jericho, but since it collapsed – soon after the second intifada erupted – Israeli gamblers have been taking their chips a-sea, boarding the casino ships cruising out of the Eilat, Ashdod and Haifa bays.
Eilat's tourist industry has been hitting a worrying slump, said Aharonovitch, and the fact that nearby resorts in Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh have casinos, does little to help the situation.
The Tourism Ministry has yet to decide whether Eilat's casino will be privately or state owned. "I think it should be privately owned, but the State should keep a very close eye on it," said Aharonovitch.
"I hope we can get the public's support for the move. We will, of course, create very strict guidelines for things like house credit, minimum gambling age and we'll make sure a substantial amount of the casino's earnings will be put towards State funded welfare and health services," he added. "I hope we'll be able to finalize things within the next few months."
