Thread: Gaming ban reason for loss of cruise ships to Bermuda?

Here is an interesting article that puts Bermuda's loss of cruise ships squarely on the inability of passengers to gamble on or off the ship.

LINK

Some excerpts from the article:

Mark Pettingill, OBA MP, told the Bermuda Sun that
“The writing was on the wall when the cruise ships said ‘if we can not game we will not come’.

“There is no question in my mind that the fact the cruise ships can not game in Bermuda was a major factor to these companies pulling out of Bermuda. They told us two-and-a-half years ago, they warned us they would stop coming if they could not game.

“The cruise ship representatives spoke to all the parties and said you need to allow the cruise ships to have gaming or we will go somewhere else. Now we are reaping what we have sown.”

“It is no longer good enough just to be beautiful, we have to provide something different."

Well this year RCCL ,NCL and Carnival at least had cruises to Bermuda. Did there used to be more lines ?

Tony, this is from a recent article in the Bermuda newspaper.

Princess Cruises have dropped their Bermuda schedule from 10 visits in 2011, to two for next year. Carnival's gone from 15 to just one. HAL is repositioning the Veendam away from Bermuda altogether in 2013, after serving the destination on regularly scheduled cruises from New York since 2010.

It's potentially devastating news for Bermuda, whose economy depends to a large extent on tourism. A single cruise ship can deliver 3,000 or more passengers to the island, so a cut of 22 of these ships in a single year means a drastic reduction in visits and, more importantly for the economy.

Thanks for posting this, Char! Very interesting.

There is just not much for cruisers to do ashore in Bermuda in the evenings. On "bad weather" days there's no place fun and entertaining to go.

Char, this is in respect to gaming on the Island, right? Has Bermuda banned all gaming on the island or just limited it to cruise ship passengers?

Interestingly, it looks like the Bahamas are reaping a fortune off of Atlantis.

Originally Posted by nealberk

Char, this is in respect to gaming on the Island, right? Has Bermuda banned all gaming on the island or just limited it to cruise ship passengers?

Interestingly, it looks like the Bahamas are reaping a fortune off of Atlantis.

The article seems to indicate that there is no gaming on the island or on the ships while ported there. Yep...the Bahamas are raking it in!

Ships are not permitted to open their casinos whilst in port, that's why you normally notice them open up about 1 hour after departure - A lot of time you don't even notice because you're only there during the day, but for cruises that have overnight stops you any gambling has to be done on-shore. Atlantis obviously do make a killing, however Atlantis is in fact an attraction in itself, whereas I don't believe there are any such casinos in Bermuda that really are showcases. With the port location in Bermuda there also isn't much close by so I can understand the frustration of passengers - will be interesting to see if Bermuda stick to their guns, negotiate a compromise or fall into line - it will then open another can of worms for other ports that host overnight ports of call.