Cyprus Takes Risky Bet On Casinos

Limassol, Cyprus, June 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Jun, 2022 ) :Europe's largest gaming resort, the City of Dreams Mediterranean, is emerging from bulldozed vineyards and lemon groves on Cyprus's southern coast.

Looking like an Inca temple facing out to sea near Limassol, Hong Kong gambling giant Melco has a grand vision for its first casino in the EU.

With 14 floors, three swimming pools, nine restaurants and cafes and a "family adventure park", it "will be the largest integrated casino resort in Europe," said Grant Johnson, the American tasked with delivering the dream, "with 1,000 slot machines and 100 gaming tables." But its arrival could lead to new rivalries on the island -- divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded following a Greek-sponsored coup -- where the breakaway north is already home to no less than 34 casinos.

Gambling is an economic lifeline for the isolated Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which is only recognised by Ankara.

The overwhelmingly Greek-Cypriot Republic of Cyprus in the south already has four casinos, all operated but not owned by Melco. But the government in Nicosia hopes the gigantic City of Dreams Mediterranean will put the island in another league, attracting 300,000 more visitors a year, including free-spending high rollers.

- Rotten luck - Before the pandemic, tourism accounted for a crucial 15 percent of the south's GDP.

Melco already has thriving City of Dreams casinos in Macau and Manila, but so far it has been dealt a string of bad hands in Cyprus.

The pandemic delayed the opening, which is now set for the end of the year. Then came Russia's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent EU sanctions and travel bans on Moscow.

Melco had been banking on Russians -- who normally account for a fifth of Cyprus's tourists -- being some of their best customers.

Despite the setbacks, it aims to break the north's near-total stranglehold on the Cyprus casino sector.

Experts, however, are warning of the danger of money laundering.

Once City of Dreams Mediterranean opens the island will be "in a rather exceptional situation" of having gamblers and their money flowing in "potentially from Asia but also from Turkey, Russia, Europe and the middle East," said Marie Redon, a specialist in the sector at Sorbonne Paris North University, increasing the potential for illegality.

The more the cash "comes from different places, the more it circulates, there is a greater chance of things like money laundering," Redon warned.