Bahamas government tries to keep Isle of Capri’s casino open

"The way we've structured the arrangement with Isle of Capri, we could have another 60 days beyond the end of this month in terms of getting this done," Minister Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace told Guardian Business last week. "We are fairly confident we have a solution to that and we are looking at what's the best long-term solution." It's a decision requiring the extra decision-making time, said the minister.

He asserts that so far there have been several applications that the government is "seriously considering". It's a ray of hope for the roughly 200 casino employees, given their continued employment is contingent on those negotiations. Finding an operator for the Freeport casino could mean the jobs of its employees are saved, avoiding a compounding of the unemployment situation on the island - nearing 15 percent.

Vanderpool-Wallace's statements are the most up-to-date information on the casino's future, following Isle of Capri's March statement outlining plans to shut down operations in Freeport and effectively leaving its 234 employees in limbo. The minister of Tourism has since spoken about interest in the property but has declined to offer details or names of the applicants.

U.S.based Isle of Capri has attributed the move to its retreat to its core market, mid-west America. The companyi sustained a more than 30 percent slide in net revenue for its Freeport casino during the 12 months ending May 2009, compared to the year ago period.

According to the US gaming company's recently released results, net income for the fiscal year ended April 26, 2009, came in at us$ 11 million. That's down from the us$ 15.5 million it realized the year before.

In an earlier interview with The Guardian, Vanderpool-Wallace said "surprising" interest had been expressed from investors in the United States "and beyond". "A number of them are being considered by our team to see what are the ones we would like to look much more closely at," he said earlier. "Obviously, the terms need to be discussed and sorted out and none of that is easy in this kind of business environment as you see, [at] casinos nearly everywhere, the business has fallen off, even in places as venerable as Las Vegas."

Former Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe said earlier that a failure to attract a new casino operator to the Our Lucaya Resort would knock another nail into the island's economic coffin.