www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Casino closing are not important to mongers who do not gamble. But, if casino closings lead to fewer tourists, then putas will have fewer customers and be will hard pressed to ask for or to demand cien when business worsens. Just my humble opinion...

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Providing humanitarian assistance to self employed chicas, one cash grant at a time.

Election is Sunday February 7, 2010. That is also Superbowl Sunday and there will no alcoholic beverage sold in Costa Rica that day.

Happens every 4 years.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Yeah I don't see much business at Paradiso during the day anyways. If it doesn't affect the poker game. I'm pretty happy. 100 Colones is pretty pricey for the drinks. I might have to take it out of the $1 propina I give the cocktail waitress. She's gonna hurt bad now.

I do not think the restricted casino hours will have a great impact on tourism. CR casinos are an added attraction not the prime purpose mongers/tourists come to CR.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

I agree with ID on this one.. I think people gamble as a side note, but CR couldn't be a primary destination for gamblers. Casinos are so much nicer in lots of other countries...

You guys are probably right...

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Providing humanitarian assistance to self employed chicas, one cash grant at a time.

It's official...... all casinos in costa Rica closed this morning at 5 am and will open at 3 pm today. This will go on for the forseeable future or at least till the geniuses come to their senses. The Colonial isn't laying off any employees right now.They are going to try opening the upstairs table games and hope that they get the increased play during the allowable hours to justify keeping all thei people. I guess the owner (Shelby) turned out to be a pretty good guy after all.

It's ironical to note that today is the International Day of the Workers. This is the equivalent of Labor Day in the U.S. It's a nice touch that Ms Chinchilla and her co-conspiritors have chosen today to have some 1500 people lose their jobs.

It's kind of strange that amcostarica and the Tico Times today have no article posted about the closings.

Isn't the upstair poker games at the colonial just poker.

The Colonial put in about 4 table games upstairs about 6 months ago.Up till now they have only opened them a few times for special occasions. Now they will open them regularly in addition to the 3 poker tables.

V.B. -

Any speculation as to how the HDR will handle the closing? I think the casino is open to the BM at tow (three) points? What are they doing, just unplugging the slots, locking up the cashier's cage and covering the tables? It will be easy for the Colonial, the Fiesta Presidente and Horseshoe to close...but what about the Casino del Rey?

Thanks for the current updates. I enjoy some gambling as part of a larger vacation agenda, and while I don't usually gamble during the daytime, it's really sad that so many workers will be put out of work by Ms. Chin-chiller's moralistic agenda.

Watch. The next step will be to criminalize prostitution. Mark my words.

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Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

Well I guess I wasn't totally accurate. The ONLY casinos that closed from 5am to 3pm were the two that I checked......that being the Colonial and the DR. The rest of the casinos are waiting for the law to be posted in the Gazzette newspaper to comply. ElC the DR merely pulled the plug on the slots and closed the tables.

From AM Costa Rica this morning.

Two casinos restrict hours to comply with decree
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

At least two downtown casinos have shortened hours to comply with a government decree.

The Casino Colonial and the casino in the Hotel Del Rey are closing at 5 a.m. and reopening at 3 p.m., according to signs posted at the Colonial and workers in the Del Rey.

This is the latest result of a presidential decree that has left casino workers unhappy and casino operators and patrons confused.

Estimates from the 1,500 casino workers are that about 20 percent of their number will lose their jobs if the rules continue.

The decree may never have been published in the La Gaceta official newspaper. The idea of restricting casino hours was the brainchild of Laura Chinchilla when she was vice president. She has since quit the post to become a candidate for the presidential nomination of the Partido Liberación Nacional.

There has been no announcement from Casa Presidencial that the decree would be enforced. Frequently presidential decrees promulgated with much fanfare fall by the wayside quickly. However, they do have the force of law.

In addition, the Colonial said that it was starting to charge gamblers for their drinks. Alcoholic beverages traditionally have been free for gamblers, even those playing slot machines. A waitress at the Colonial said that drinks still were
free Monday night but that they probably would be about 500 colonies when the casino begins collecting. That's less than a U.S. dollar. Collecting for drinks also was required by the decree.

From 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. is not a busy period for casinos, and many smaller operations outside of San José are not even open at that time. The Colonial has been a 24-hour operation for years. The original decree called for closing during more hours of the day, but casino operators have been negotiating with the government for nearly a year.

The decree summarizes what the laws have said. For example, a casino is supposed to be associated with a major hotel. The original idea was to make the casinos a mecca for tourists. But many more Costa Ricans gamble at the downtown casinos now than tourists. The operator of the Casino Colonial constructed a hotel, in part, so the business would be with in the law.

Ms. Chinchilla promoted the decree with the idea that it would cut down on prostitution. She claimed that casinos were centers of prostitution. She may have been confused by the reputation of the Del Rey as a place where men meet working women. The Del Rey bar continues to be open while the casino section and the slot machines are blocked.

Ms. Chinchilla also appeared to be unaware of the dozens of brothels that populate the downtown area. These are unaffected by the decree.

Some workers at the Casino Colonial suggested that the municipality was taking on the role of enforcing the decree.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

The "no free alcoholic beverages" in the casinos while patrons are playing,seems to have taken hold in all the casinos. Now a player can have only coffee,juice and other non-alcoholic beverages free. I find it rather strange that the Colonial is now charging 300 colones for a bottle of water,but Coke is free. The Colonial has gone so far as to post a price list all around the casino.

When I was there for a week, starting on May 6, the casino at the Morazan was closed during those hours.

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"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile, and the rest of us are phucked until we can put our acts together; not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely"...Hunter S. Thompson (RIP)