Another Casino Closes in Puerto Rico

One of Puerto Rico's biggest and most famous casinos closed on Wednesday after operating for 40 years. The Condado Plaza Hilton has recently laid off 144 workers from the casino located in the tourist district of Condado. The managing director in the name of Raul Bustamante has reported to The Associated Press that the closure was due to the 40% decline in the use of slot machines in the past 10 years. Furthermore, he has said in a phone interview that the former 24-hour casino that began its operations in 1975 will likely to be converted into a ballroom.

"We now want to focus on areas where we've had good business: rooms and banquets," Raul Bustamante said.

The Hotel and Tourism Association of Puerto Rico reported that it is the seventh casino to close in the last five years. The island has been on recession and has been struggling with 12.6 percent of unemployment rate. The island is now on its ninth year of recession.

Majority of the revenue for Puerto Rico's Tourism Company, the entity responsible for promoting the island, came from gambling taxes. A chunk of that revenue, in turn, goes to the islands largest public university, the University of Puerto Rico.

Miguel Vega, president of the tourism association said in a statement that this is a significant bearing.

On the other hand, Jason Rivera, the president of a local gastronomy union, believes that this round of layoffs is unacceptable because it is the workers who are suffering from the economic crisis caused by the government.

According to government officials, the closure of casinos caused a $6 million drop in revenue.

Some critics have claimed that the 45,000 illegal gambling machine that are operating across the island are to blame for the closure of these casinos. According to the Hotel & Tourism Association, about 90 of the casino clients are Puerto Rican locals not locals. To date, there are 20 other casinos still operating on the island.

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