Cuba was a casino destination before Las Vegas and it is thought that the current efforts to improve relations between it and the US could see gambling return.
“I don’t think there’s any question every casino executive in the United States and beyond is thinking of a plan to get into Cuba,” said Bob Jarvis, a Nova Southeastern University professor who is an expert on gambling issues. “It was the play land for the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, and it could be again. It’s fabulous.”
It was Fidel Castro who brought an end to an era that brought US visitors to 13 Cuban casinos. Castro, who viewed gambling and other “sin industries” as a criminal waste of the nation’s financial resources, abolished it in January 1959.
However, even if the Cuban government, led today by President Raul Castro, approves gambling, people say it would take about 10 years for casinos to open again.
