Northern Cyprus considers relaxation of casino laws
The finance, budget and planning committee met on Monday to evaluate the law.
Cyprus.- It’s been reported that Turkey-administered Northern Cyprus is considering updating its casino legislation to relax regulations. The finance, budget and planning committee, chaired by Resmiye Canaltay, met on Monday to evaluate the law in a meeting attended by Fikri Ataoglu and Alisan San, who hold the tourism and finance briefs respectively, and representatives of the central bank and the casino operators’ association.
Media in the south have reported that according to social democratic party CTP MP Devrim Barcin, the amendments would remove the limit on the number of casinos that can be run by a single company – currently five outside of the Bafra tourism investment zone in Vokolida. The length of casino licences would be extended from three to ten years.
Meanwhile, a requirement for hotels to have a minimum of 500 beds to be allowed to operate casinos could be reduced to 300 for hotels located in marinas. Rules on where casinos can be built, ruling out urban centres and taking into account other casinos and the locations of schools, will no longer apply in the Karpaz tourism zone in Karpasia.
Finally, a rule requiring casino operators to be tenants of the entire building where they operate will be changed to allow operators to run casinos in buildings where other businesses also have tenancies.
Meanwhile, in the south part of the Island, Melco opened City of Dreams Mediterranean in Limassol on July 11.
