Israeli
Government Discusses Casino Plans
The Israeli Financial Cabinet
will discuss in its upcoming session about allowing
the first Israeli casino to be built in Eilat,
Israel's most popular vacation destination and
seaside resort. Abraham Hirshenzon, Israel's
Minister of Tourism, is in favor of the decision,
saying that it will draw tourists from all over
the world to Israel, and that it will stop Israeli
citizens from taking money out of the country
and gambling in Casinos abroad, most notably
in Sinai and Cyprus. In addition, a casino would
mean more than fifty thousand more jobs, in
a country that is almost crippled by recession,
and an unsteady and uncertain situation in the
Middle East. The new casino is expected to draw
to it more than a million tourists a year, boosting
state income by over two billion shekels. This
figure does not include losses by the gamblers
themselves.
Even
though a formal decision has not yet been made
by the cabinet, already groups of investors
have shown interest in the new project. Among
them are Shmuel Plato Sharon, an outspoken,
flamboyant businessman and former member of
the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset. Together
with a group of investors that includes the
owner of the Princess hotel in Eilat, the proposed
casino is to be built inside the hotel grounds.
The cost of the project has been estimated at
between 50 and 100 million dollars.
Plato-Sharon
has experience in floating casinos, and has
operated a number of them in the Mediterranean
Sea fifteen years ago. His partner, Isle of
Capri is known as one of the leaders in the
casino business in the United States, and owns
13 casinos across the country, 3 in Great Britain
and 1 in the Bahamas. Isle of Capri is owned
and controlled by Bernard Goldstein. In 2004
the company reportedly earned over 1.4 billion
dollars.
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