-planning high stakes poker match
Construction of a US$2M casino at the Princess Hotel is currently ongoing and the owners are seeking to have the facility opened early next year.
Operations Director of the Hotel Oguz Tayanc recently told Stabroek News that the aim is to have the casino completed before the end of the year so that the facility could be commissioned in January. When completed, the casino is expected to have about 200 slot machines, several roulette and blackjack and poker tables and special Texas Hold’em poker tournament tables. Tayanc also disclosed that the hotel is planning to host “a big scale international tournament to take place in mid-2010.”
Tayanc said that the casino will be about 16,000 square feet and will be “one hundred percent Las Vegas style”. He said the establishment will also have a full bar, food outlets and will feature live shows, which will contribute to high-class entertainment. He stated that the operations of the casino will be adjusted where necessary to correspond with the needs of the public.
In January, the hotel was issued with a premises licence as well as an operator’s licence by the local Gaming Authority, which facilitates the establishment and the operations of a casino in the country. A casino premises licence is granted only to a new hotel or resort complex with a minimum of 150 rooms allocated for accommodation.
According to Tayanc, the casino is expected to create approximately 120-130 new jobs for Guyanese. Recent advertisements placed by the hotel’s management have announced employment opportunities at the “Inter-national Casino” for “young, innovative, enthusiastic, young and dynamic individuals between ages 18-35.” Tayanc noted that eighty percent of these jobs are new to Guyanese, especially since persons will be employed as dealers and slot machine attendants. Due to the nature of these jobs, intense training exercises have begun for 36 successful applicants. This training, which began on Monday, is set to run until the casino opens, Tayanc disclosed.
During an interview in July, Tayanc told Stabroek News that initially foreigners will be managing the facility but they will eventually “transfer everything to local personnel.”He emphasised that the management will run the casino within the confines of the law. According to him, the law states that only hotel guests and foreigners will have access to the casino and he stressed that the hotel’s management will exercise strict control over this. When asked what measures would be taken to ensure that this happens, he said that they will monitor every single person entering the casino. He also said that the management will co-operate with local authorities to prevent money laundering at the establishment.
Oguz recently told this newspaper that the casino will be equipped with sufficient security. He stressed that no person with weapons will be allowed into the casino.
The hotel has also started construction of its Entertain-ment Centre on its premises. This centre will have a two-screen movie theatre, a bowling alley, a luxury lounge-bar, and an arcade for children, Tayanc said. This facility will be opened in about five to six months.
Meanwhile, the hotel’s management continues to work towards improving the quality of the establishment. The new General Manager of the hotel Muharrem Kulekci, who only assumed the position a few weeks ago, says that the plan is to make the establishment more attractive to visitors. So far, the hotel’s management has upgraded the furniture in the various rooms and has also invested in the training of the hotel staff, he noted.
The General Manager, who has 24 years of experience in the hotel industry, stated that this was only one measure for ensuring that customers got a high quality service in keeping with the Princess brand of hotels. Kulekci noted that recently the Princess Hotel has seen an increase in its customers.
The Turkish hotel group ‘Princess’ purchased the Buddy’s International Hotel last year at the price of US$15 million, Tayanc said. The hotel had been developed in time for the 2007 World Cup Cricket at a total cost of US$12 million by local businessman Omprakash ‘Buddy’ Shivraj.
The establishment was originally built with funding that included several mortgages from the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) and the $165.7 million advance on the sale of rooms to the Government of Guyana. The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport subsequently paid over to the Ministry of Finance the sum of US$598,000 – approximately $119.6 million – of the $165.7 million that the government had advanced to the hotel. The remainder of the sum of $46.1 million was said to have been recovered through room nights at the hotel.
