Before there was Las Vegas, there was Havana, and if President Obama's efforts to thaw U.S.-Cuba relations succeed, gamblers might return to the island nation.
"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."
Jarvis noted that it was Fidel Castro who brought an end to a romanticized era that brought U.S. 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.
Even if the Cuban government, led today by President Raul Castro, approves gambling, people say it would take about 10 years for slot machines to start spinning again.
Michael Pollock of the research firm Spectrum Gaming, visited Cuba earlier this year and noticed that many sites displayed portraits of Meyer Lansky, who in the 1950s brought to Cuba the biggest gamblers from Las Vegas and New York.
Pollock says casinos won't appear in Cuba anytime soon.
"So many steps would need to be taken before it becomes a realistic pursuit," he said.
Tribune News Service
