Casino opening ‘not around the corner’
The head of the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission has strongly dismissed rumours that sites have been selected for the Island’s casinos.
Richard Schuetz, the commission’s executive director told The Royal Gazette: “If there has been a deal made, I have not been made aware of that. If a deal was made and I was lied to about it, you would probably be reading about me leaving the Island.
“At this point in my life, I don’t need that. I have a commitment to the people of Bermuda. That is the only constituency I serve.”
Commission chairman Alan Dunch echoed similar sentiments, saying: “When I was appointed I was assured that the commission had a clean slate from which to work. I made it clear I was taking the job on the basis that there was a clean slate, and as I sit here today I can tell you that the commission has made no deals, no promises to anyone.
“If somebody else has, they did so at their own peril because as far as I’m concerned this commission is autonomous and will make its own decisions based on merits, not based on other people’s promises.”
Mr Schuetz, a veteran of the US casino industry, and Mr Dunch, a veteran lawyer, spoke to this newspaper in a wide-ranging interview about the commission’s work as Bermuda prepares for its first casinos.
He said that while the commission is still laying out the application process for prospective casino operators based on the Casino Gaming Act 2014, he said that any request for proposal (RFP) process would be public.
“We are still working on the details on how that is going to roll out, but absolutely it will be public,” he said.
While Shawn Crockwell, the tourism minister, recently expressed hope that the first casino would open its doors in time for the 35th America’s Cup in 2017, Mr Schuetz would say only that the commission is working as fast as possible to lay the groundwork.
“Singapore were talking about legislation in 2003,” Mr Schuetz said. “In 2004 they did the request for concepts. The first property opened in late 2010. These take a long time because there are a lot of steps that need to be handled correctly.
“Another model that shows up a lot in discussions is the Jamaican model. The Jamaican enabling legislation was done in 2010, the first casino in Jamaica will probably open under the act in 2019 or 2020.
“What we are doing right now is education and looking at the Act, seeing what is the best way using the act to move forward. We are looking at doing it smarter, more efficiently with less bodies and maintaining the level of integrity that we need to feel comfortable moving forward.
“We are working on developing a rate programme now. We are working closely with a lot of anti-money laundering and counter terrorism people to make sure we get that right. We are just starting to lay a very strong foundation.”
Mr Dunch, meanwhile, said that the opening of the first Bermuda casino would likely take time.
“The initial set of regulations to do with designated sites should be tabled before the end of this year. That’s an important first step,” he explained. “As to the necessary regulations to get us up and running in terms of processing applications, I would like to think we could see that by the end of the first quarter of the next year, but that could be optimistic. It may not necessarily be a reality.
“It has to be understood that we take the process only so far, and when we are in a position to entertain applications, the actual processing of the applications is a timely process. Months. And once a licence is issued, there’s a time lag between the issuing of the licence and the physical casino being completed. That’s out of our hands.
“I would imagine we would put conditions on the licences that are designed to see things built in a timely manner, but there’s still going to be a significant time chunk that’s there for the physical development. When you start to add all those bits up, you see that the opening day of the first casino in Bermuda is not around the corner.”
Mr Schuetz added that unforeseen issues can cause further complications and delays, saying: “We once hit archaeological digs on a tribal casino, which slows things down a lot. MGM has recently had a lawsuit. There can be environmental issues. Labour disruptions, a hurricane crashing through the Island. There are a lot of things that can happen. We are just doing the best we can under the functions that we can control.”
Richard Schuetz first took a job in a casino trying to make ends meet in college in Nevada, unaware that it would lead into a long career in the industry.
Mr Schuetz, the executive director for the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission, said: “I would work at night as a dealer, dealing blackjack and dice. I would go to college during the day, and then at 9pm I would go to work and I would be there until 5am. I was normally in some state of dishevelment because that was five days a week.”
After graduating from University of Utah, he said he taught for a period before returning to the industry, working as a senior executive in the gaming markets in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno, Laughlin, Minnesota, Mississippi and Louisiana. While he said that casino gaming has long been a subject of scrutiny, he said that from his time in the industry he has seen the benefits that it can bring first hand.
Noting his time working with Native American tribes in Minnesota, he said: “We entered into a partnership, we financed and built their casino and within two years the tribe was able to replace the water system on its reservation. Every tribal member that wanted a job had one, we were able to build senior housing for the elders of the tribe. We were able to build for them a spiritual centre. We had child care and we had medical coverage, which they had never had before, and they were able to reacquire some of the land they had lost.
“The story I like to tell is I was walking through the casino one day and there was a woman doing the 21 game, and I asked her what the experience meant to her. She said that for the first time in her life I can allow my children to dream of an education. What was fascinating to me from the tribal experience was that I really saw what a powerful economic engine that a casino can be. It just absolutely, fundamentally changed these people’s lives for the better.”
Mr Schuetz said he later taught casino marketing and served as a commissioner with the California Gambling Control Commission for four years before he accepted the position in Bermuda earlier this year over several other offers.
“This was the most interesting project I was offered because I felt like in this project I can make a difference,” he said. “At this stage in my life, that’s a nice thing to do.”
