The Las Vegas of Middle East 🔝

The southern resort of Eilat has dreamed of having a casino for almost 30 years.

The casino never came but in recent months Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed support for opening one in the city. Amir Levy, the Tourism Ministry’s director general, said if there’s ever going to be a casino in Israel, it will be in Eilat.

Levy says the obvious site is in one of the city’s hotels, but more recently there’s been talk of putting it at the Ramon International Airport, the new international gateway to the resort town located 18 kilometers away (11 miles) away.

“If the transportation minster orders the Israel Airports Authority to prepare a casino plan they’ll do it. But I don’t think there’s any time to waste. Eilat need new growth engines and quickly,” said Levy, who said he prefers the hotel alterative.

“We need to hold competitive bidding where the hotel chains operating in Eilat compete and there will be five locations. The hotel chains know the ins and outs of doing it very quickly – any other solutions will take years.”

Among the possible sites with a space big enough to house a casino is the Princess Hotel, which has been standing unused for the last four years after it was bought by the property developer Nitsba Holdings.

Priel Arrias, Nitsba’s CEO, is also bullish on the casino idea and said the company had wanted to pursue it. Meantime, it’s due to re-open as a casino-less hotel next year.