{"id":19175,"date":"2012-03-12T12:05:54","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T16:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=19175"},"modified":"2012-03-12T12:07:23","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T16:07:23","slug":"bahamas-concerned-over-major-casino-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2012\/03\/bahamas-concerned-over-major-casino-competition","title":{"rendered":"Bahamas Concerned Over Major Casino Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_19177\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19177\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19177\" title=\"markantonis\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/markantonis.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/markantonis.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/markantonis-150x112.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19177\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Markantonis, the president and managing director at Kerzner International (Bahamas). Photo: Edward Russell\/TNG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A $1.5 billion lawsuit between rival casino operators in New York State and a political tug-of-war in Florida have delayed major developments from springing up in their respective states.<\/p>\n<p>The news comes amid serious concerns from stakeholders in The Bahamas concerning mounting competition to the gambling product.<\/p>\n<p>Back in November, George Markantonis, the president and managing director at Kerzner International (Bahamas), told Guardian Business that more legalized gambling in these states is &#8220;absolutely a concern&#8221; for future tourism numbers. Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, the minister of tourism and aviation, said casino services in Florida represent &#8220;the loss of a significant advantage&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>But plans for both New York State and Florida appear to be at least temporarily derailed.<\/p>\n<p>According to recent court documents obtained by Guardian Business, Concord Associates has filled a $1.5 billion lawsuit claiming a &#8220;racino&#8221;, a facility in which horse race betting and other types of gambling are done electronically, has conspired to block its plans for a $600 million entertainment complex in upstate New York.<\/p>\n<p>Phase one of the proposed casino resort would include a 75,000 square-foot casino and 258-room hotel, including five restaurants, entertainment spaces and 10,000 square feet of meeting space.<\/p>\n<p>Resorts World Miami, backed by the Kuala Lumpar-based Genting Group, is planning a mega resort that includes a casino, four hotels, two residential towers, a shopping center, more than 50 restaurants and nightclubs and 700,000 square feet of convention and meeting space.<\/p>\n<p>Markantonis called the Genting Group &#8220;high caliber&#8221; and felt The Bahamas would have to greatly &#8220;up its game&#8221; if the development ever came to fruition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although temporarily halted due to legal tugs of war between the operators, major gambling establishments are on the horizon and present formidable competition to the Bahamas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[178,107,137,33,73],"class_list":["post-19175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-casino","tag-florida","tag-gambling","tag-tourism","tag-travel-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}