by Rod Hughes

New regulations on Costa Rica’s 48 casinos may cause those businesses to lay off 3,000 employees over the next several months, Jorge Hidalgo, vicepresident of the Costa Rica Casino Association told the daily paper La Nacion.

Most telling of the four decrees and one directive issued by the government confines casinos to an eight-hour (6 p.m. to 2 a,m,) schedule. Many work around the clock. The newspaper gave another example of the draconian measures to go into effect: That in hotels with fewer than 60 rooms, the casino should not have direct access to the street and may not give free drinks to the casino’s customers.

Melania Corrales of Gamblers Anonymous would like to see the rules stricter to keep younger players from getting the gambling bug. But, then, Costa Rica has always had a love/hate relationship with gambling. While most Catholics do not consider it an issue, in the past Evangelical lawmakers have tried their best to all but eliminate it from the country. The tourism industry, especially hoteliers of course, do not agree.

The result of all this tugging and hauling has been the imposition of a stiffer tax on blackjack (tute) tables some years ago and a tangled web of decrees, many defying any logic at all. Back in the days before a structural reform eliminated the office of provincial governors, those personages were charged with administering a gambling law that even lawyers said defied any attempt at interpretation. Most governors simply ignored them. Since then, a patchwork quilt of decrees has tried to fill the gap.