THE poorest sections of society will not be admitted to the controversial casino planned for the Phoenix Park Racecourse in Dublin, according to the developers. They expect that the bulk of its patrons will be high spending tourists.
Responding to fears expressed by opponents of the scheme that the casino will tempt the poor to gamble, Mr Norman Turner, director of Sonas Centre Ltd, said it was "patently obvious that this is not an environment where people are allowed to get in, if they were inclined to get in, with welfare cheques. First of all, it's not an environment which they would be allowed to enter. Secondly, the schools of management at Sheraton can identify that type of customer."
Mr Turner said his "gut feeling" was that up to 70 per cent of the patrons will be tourists coming here, not just for the casino but also to go racing, play golf and for the theatre and Dublin's night life.
"I don't want to get into social stratification, because it's a dangerous area, but I think they [the management] are expert enough to detect people who can afford to gamble and those who can't. And we hope that it attracts those Irish people who can afford to go racing, to gamble anywhere they want and afford it ... I hope in our own subtle way that we'll be able to enforce as a minimum standard the type of dress code you would associate with a five star hotel".
An Bord Pleanala has granted planning permission for the £400 million project, which includes a luxury hotel, national conference centre, casino, stadium and indoor arena. Legislation is required for the casino and the whole complex depends on such a licence being granted to the developers. It is intended that the proposed casino, which will be located in the basement, will contain "less than 500" gaming machines, not all of them "one armed bandits", occupying only 15 per cent of the casino's floor area. The rest would be gaming tables.
The developers are seeking a public subvention of £50 million towards the cost of building a national conference centre, 63,000 seat stadium and 12,000 seat indoor arena on the 180 acre site. A sum of £23 million in EU aid has already been allocated for the conference centre under the National Development Plan, but the developers want an additional £27 million from the Exchequer towards the cost of providing the proposed sports facilities.
Mr Turner said. "The pay back to the State in direct and indirect tax revenue generated by 2,000 jobs in this vicinity probably means, by our calculations, that the subvention we're suggesting would be paid back to the Exchequer in under three years. As a plain piece of good business, it makes sense ... As a means to an end, a well managed, fully regulated, fully supervised casino that is not predominantly slot machines, that is demonstrably five star, is a sensible way of producing a national conference centre, a national stadium and indoor arena.
