[Since Atty. Dov Weissglass, the Israel Prime Minister’s Bureau Chief, represents the casino described below in his law practice, it will be instructive to see if the PA is indeed allowed to receive Israeli clients and if the roads are open to the Casino… DB]

Israeli gamblers will be disappointed: Following the IDF withdrawal from Palestinian cities, including Jericho, the Palestinians announced that the Jericho casino is prepared to open its gates to masses of gamblers, however the IDF has decided not to allow Israelis to enter Jericho. This means that at present, the casino will remain closed.

The gaming halls and slot machines were only recently renovated, and the electrical systems were successfully tested. Even the dealers have already been told to be ready to be called on short notice. But at the present stage, the casino owners will be forced to wait the festive opening. The reason is that Israel is not willing to permit Israelis to enter the city boundaries as long as the Palestinians have not demonstrated security control over the terror organizations.

The problem is that there are also no tourists in the city at the present time, and according to the franchise agreement for operating the casino, Palestinians have been forbidden to gamble there, except those who hold foreign passports. “The prohibition on Israelis entering Jericho is an internal Israeli affair. Those who enter the boundaries of the city of Jericho in general, including the casino, will be violating an order by OC Central Command, which prohibits Israelis from entering the PA territories, and such offenders will be subject to prosecution,” said IDF sources yesterday.

Police sources said that the Israeli gamblers are not particularly impressed by the various orders and prohibitions. “If the casino does open, Israeli gamblers will find indirect ways of reaching the casino to gamble,” said a senior police source.

The IDF is still not prepared to take the risk and enable Israelis to walk around Jericho, as long as the Palestinians have not proved that they are controlling terror and supervising the wanted men who found refuge in Jericho. The commanders of the Palestinian security services in Jericho, conversely, say to the Israelis: “Welcome. We will provide full security to anyone who enters territories under our responsibility, whether Israeli or a tourist.”

The Jericho casino, which was open around the clock and hosted about 3,000 Israelis every day, was an important source of livelihood for the residents of Jericho until it closed in October 2000, following the el-Aksa Intifada. A luxury hotel, the Intercontinental, was even built nearby to serve the gamblers.

Security officials believe that the casino, which opened in 1998 and quickly became an economic success story on an international scale, brought about USD 1 million per day into the coffers of the Palestinian Authority. During the fighting the casino was damaged, among other reasons due to the fact that rival groups of the Palestinian security services fired from the roof and windows of the casino, forcing Israel to return fire towards the building and cause damage to it. Over the past few months all the damage has been repaired, and the signs of combat have disappeared from the casino building.

Bret Anderson, general manager of the casino for the Casinos Austria company, the owner of the casino in Jericho, said last night that hundreds of thousands of dollars had been invested in renovating the casino, especially in filling the holes opened in the building’s walls as a result of shots. “The greatest mystery is how tight IDF supervision over the movement of Israelis will be, and how safe it will be to travel from Israeli territory to Jericho,” said Anderson. “We have no interest in having the Israelis travel through the desert to bypass the IDF roadblocks.

As soon as we receive assurances that the situation is normal, we will be able to operate the casino. We will not risk opening the casino until we know that our clients are completely safe,” he said.

This piece appeared in Yediot Ahronot of August 18th. 2003

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