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Will Caravanserai ever get their casino license?

December 21, 2007

Caravanserai’s struggle to obtain a casino license continues and the signs that are coming from the courts are no help at all. The Dutch Supreme Court denied the company’s request to annul a decision by the Governor of the Netherlands Antilles, dating back to November 11, 2005. The court decision does not stand in the way of the Caravanserai’s ongoing attempts to obtain a casino license for the building that housed the Golden Palm Casino up to 2004.

Caravanserai and Golden Palm fell out after the hotel demanded an extraordinary high rent. The owner of Golden Palm obtained a license to operate a casino elsewhere on the island under the name Dolphin Casino.

The parties involved in the case before the Supreme Court are GN Entertainment (GNE) and Island Hotel Corporation (IHC), the company that exploits the Caravanserai Hotel. GNE aims to operate a casino in St. Maarten. GNE is linked to IHC. GNE requested a casino license on August 24, 2004.

The Executive Council turned this request down on February 23, 2005. GNE appealed the decision and on September 13, 2005 the Exco decided to grant GNE its license.

At this point, things got hairy for Carvansarai; it mistakenly believed that the Exco decision meant that the license was theirs. But island governor Richards disagreed and put the Exco decision for annulment to the governor of the Netherlands Antilles; the governor annuled the Exco decision, because it was “against the general interest of the Netherlands Antilles.”

Written by alice · Filed Under Local News 

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