Bernard questions IRD model’s benefit to ordinary Jamaicans

The Senate on Friday passed the Casino Gaming (General) Regulations, 2025, but not before Opposition lawmaker Allan Bernard cautioned against the pitfalls of the integrated resorts development (IRD) model, which has been espoused by the Government as the approach to strengthening Jamaica’s tourism competitiveness.

The IRD model, among other things, includes luxury hotel rooms, luxury shopping, entertainment facilities and casinos in particular.

The regulations establish the operational framework for casinos in Jamaica addressing issues such as licensing, compliance, surveillance and enforcement among other things.

Leading the debate on the regulations in the Senate yesterday, Kamina Johnson Smith, the Government leader in the Upper House, said the casinos would not be a stand-alone offering, where individuals can walk off the street and enter a casino and partake in gambling activities.

She indicated that casinos would be one component of various offerings by a resort so that an individual would have to be a guest at the facility, enter on a day pass or gain access through some other arrangement established by the hotel to participate in the casino activity.

In his presentation, Bernard said this was not merely a debate about gaming but who owns Jamaica’s development pathways, who benefits from it and who was systematically being excluded from it.

He said the Government was clear that casinos would not be stand alone, but would be embedded within exclusive high-end tourism enclaves.

“But this is precisely where the concerns begin. When the IRD model of development being advanced is examined a troubling pattern emerges,” the Opposition senator contended.

He said while the IRD model was presented as modern, diversified and globally competitive, in practice it represents a consolidation of economic activity within privately controlled coastal enclaves.

CLOSED LOOP TOURISM ECOSYSTEM

“Within these spaces, beaches, entertainment, culture, commerce and now casino gaming are built into a closed loop tourism ecosystem,” he continued.

Referencing the beach access and management policy, Bernard said on paper the policy promises expanded public access, protection of prescriptive rights and sustainable management of coastal assets. However, he contends that in reality Jamaicans face a stark contradiction.

He questioned “how do we reconcile a policy that promises access with a development model that consolidates beaches within private resorts?

According to Bernard, the IRD model does not exist in isolation but depends fundamentally on prime coastal real estate. He said history has shown where large-scale tourism enclaves expand public access contracts.

When the dots are connected – casino regulations enable IRD models; beach policy ambiguously protects access and the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority accelerates large-scale private coastal projects, said Bernard.

He said the IRD model has a capital large-scale investment approach in which ownership is external or elite, entry barriers are high, linkages to local communities are weak and controlled. In this framework, he said the small man – the fisherman, the vendor, the youth entrepreneur – do not enter the economy as owners but as low-wage workers, peripheral service providers or a spectator to wealth extraction happening on their own shorelines.

Challenging Bernard’s analysis, Government Senator Keith Duncan described his arguments as “weak”, noting that many countries have embarked on the IRD model to remain competitive and relevant.

Duncan said the IRD provides benefits and linkages to the wider economy including small, medium and large enterprises.

He said Jamaica had successfully adopted the IRD model to augment its tourism offerings.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com