More Casinos are Coming

The construction of new Panama luxury hotel complexes means more casinos.

Hilton Panama, Trump Ocean Club and Ritz Plaza each have pending casino petitions with Panama’s Gaming Control Board, as does the ambitious, Jumeirah Group-backed Los Faros project despite its more-than-a-year construction delays, La Prensa reports.

According to the Gaming Control Board statistics, there are currently 14 full-scale casinos, 24 slot machine rooms, 11 betting agencies and one bingo room in Panama.  Of a total of 50 gaming rooms, 35 are located in Panama City.

In the first trimester of 2010, bets placed totaled $310,006.036 with $227,209,563 machine winnings leading the pack, followed by $64,688,450 on table games, $9,196,383 on horse racing, $8,011,871 on sports betting and $899,769 in bingo games.

In somewhat related news, Atlantic City’s 11 casinos won $1.7 billion in the first four months of 2010.