As the US$20M SleepIn Hotel and Carnival Casino prepares to submit a new application for a casino licence, its staff say they are eager to not only showcase skills learned and provide the services offered by the entity but to “really start working” for their money.
“Since after the training and recruitment, we are paid a salary although the Casino isn’t up and running as yet because they don’t want if they get through tomorrow we leave,” an employee, Balram (only name given) said.
“But we really want to work for the money and not just sit down and collect it so I am waiting and praying for them to get the approval and so on,” he added.
Balram, like housekeeping staff Amanda Dillon, Chef Bharatt Putdyal and slot attendant Tia Holder all share similar views about the anticipated opening of the hotel.
Dillon, a mother of three returned to Guyana from Grenada in 2014 and could not find a job. She explained that she would have worked in housekeeping in Grenada but returned home to raise her three children and wanted to get back into the same job because she enjoys what she does. “I love my job and I say that without any shame or anything. I just enjoy what I do,” she asserted.
But she said that her inability to find a job had reached frustrating levels and she saw hope when the hotel advertised. She applied and was successful and cannot wait for the hotel to open. She too is paid a retainer, pending the hotel’s opening.
Stabroek News was told that a housekeeper at the hotel earns a salary of $60,000 monthly along with pension and fringe benefits.
Turkish Sous-Chef
A smiling Chef Putdyal, told of his months-long training with a Turkish Sous-Chef who he described as very patient and kind. “I can’t wait for it to open. I am very excited. Chef has taught me so much and I can now prepare meals from all around the world and though they bring some of the spices from Miami, most of the other ingredients we have right here but by a different name,” a proud Putdyal posited.
“I can do the Turkish eggplant kebabs, menemem (an egg dish), baklava (sweet flaky pastry) and many more. There are foods from Croatia and other parts of Europe and Surinamese meals…so I am very, very anxious to showcase all the things that I have learned and add twists to our own local cuisine, for the guests,” he added.
Holder was trained in Suriname for seven months as a card dealer and slot attendant. She said she learned of the vacancy in the newspapers and applied, although she had her doubts about being hired. “Jobs are hard to get and so many persons are unemployed so you never know,” she said. However, she was successful and was told by management that if she feels at any time a better offer has come up for her she could apply.
Hotelier Clifton Bacchus, has said that he will create 300 jobs for persons at the facility and on Wednesday he informed that from a recruitment drive he held last year, that amount has already been shortlisted.
Last year November the Gaming Authority informed the hotel that it had denied the applications of SleepIn International Hotel and Casino Inc. for a casino licence because it failed to provide proof of “its financial soundness and capability,” which was critical for approval.
Noting that it was a costly process, Bacchus none-theless said that he would reapply and provide the necessary documentation.
On Wednesday he informed that he had not done so as his accountant had not yet finished the required work but promised to do so sometime next week.
The Gambling Prevention Act allows for the creation of casino premises and the issuance of a casino operator’s licence but it makes clear that “no more than three casino premises licences” may be issued in respect of any one of the country’s ten regions and limits the issuance of such licences to new hotel or resort complexes that have “a minimum of one hundred and fifty rooms allocated for accommodation.”
When Bacchus was asked why he went ahead completing the Casino without having a licence he pointed out that not only did he have faith in the system that the government would honour a MoU he has but he is also optimistic about Guyana’s economic future. “I have a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Government of Guyana and the MoU stipulates that I can go ahead and do all of these things and get it done and, as a Guyanese I am very optimistic that everything will go as planned. I very optimistic also that Guyana will grow and things will move forward so I am going ahead. In my field, in my business, it is going good because I am fully booked for next month…I am very optimistic that things will work and tourism will move forward in this country,” he asserted.
He later told Stabroek News that he also is looking to the country’s futuristic developments and persons coming here when Guyana becomes an oil producing nation as you have to “plan ahead, to be ahead of the game, if you want to succeed.”
Bacchus said that no politician had any financial interest in the business and that it was invested in through a partnership with the Pasha Global Group that owns the Surinamese Yokohoma Trading. Local banks, he said, assisted him in getting funds through mortgages.
The SleepIn owner said that he knows that concerns have been raised about locals cheating the law and gambling at a casino but that all persons reaching the casino admission criteria would be allowed entry. “The law says if you are a foreigner or a guest at the hotel you could gamble so if they come and they go into the room as a guest obviously they could gamble.”
Under Section 30 of the Act, the legislation also stipulates that gambling in a licensed casino is limited to “a paying guest accommodated in a room of the hotel or resort complex in respect of which the casino premises licence was issued or any other person or class of persons authorized by the regulations.” Under Section 31, persons contravening the regulations “commit an offence and are liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than one million dollars and not more than twenty million dollars and imprisonment for a term of not less than six months nor more than two years.”
He is also asking that he be held to his word that all legitimate winnings will be paid to patrons and the hotel will make no excuses for glitches with any of the machines. “Everybody will get what they win,” he said.
