Bahamians being considered to operate Our Lucayan casino

Wed, May 29th 2013, 11:16 AM

The government will reveal the new operator for Grand Lucayan's casino in mid-June, according to Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe, who confirmed that Bahamians are among those being considered.
"We have some documents that we are going to look at today (Tuesday). We have to move quickly on it," Wilchcombe said.
"We know the people who have applied. We're just doing our due diligence and then, of course, we will make our decision."
At least seven potential casino operators have applied to take over the Grand Bahama facility as interest continues to grow ahead of this week's application deadline, Wilchcombe said.
"There's interest and, of course, you have two Bahamians -- one of whom is seeking to build his own casino in the nearby area.
"We are talking to him as well and we're waiting to get all of his details because he's talking about developing something [in addition] to what we're talking about. So there's an interest developing in Grand Bahama.
"But we have some very good parties who have all sought to become the operators in Grand Bahama."
One of the leading contenders is thought to be the Dream Group, based in the Dominican Republic. The Dream Group operates more than a dozen casinos in the Dominican Republic and employs 13,000 people.
The current casino operator, Treasure Bay, was due to pull out of the casino in April.
Wilchcombe said his ministry is using its extension with Treasure Bay to ensure that Grand Lucayan has the best casino operator.
He said it is important that the government identifies the new operator on time as it only has a short window to work with before Treasure Bay's extension ends.
"Once the deadline is passed we will look at all of the applicants and then we'll determine an operator. But always remember that we're seeking to go one step up and we're seeking to cause Grand Bahama to be [on par] with what's happening in Nassau.
"Nassau is going to have two major operators. Baha Mar with their new partners is going to be significant and, of course, Atlantis is already a giant. So we want to make sure that throughout the country [we have gaming]...As I've said before, my effort is to ensure that we can become a gaming destination."
Wilchcombe said the chosen operator will be one that is service oriented.
"One of the things that I am concerned about is service qualities and we have to ensure service quality in everything that we do," he said.
With the vast amount of island destinations competing for tourism dollars, Wilchcombe said The Bahamas has to ensure that it offers quality service.
"So to do that we have to not only get the operator to get some training going on, but we have to get all the people of The Bahamas involved in the tourism industry," he said.
Treasure Bay has operated the casino since 2009 when it took over from Isle of Capri. The casino employs as many as 300 Bahamians.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian

 Sponsored Ads