The Christmas Island Resort, often called the Christmas Island Casino, is a holiday

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''resort ...

Christmas Island Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around south of Java and Sumatra and around north-west of the ...

, an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n territory in the north-eastern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

lying about 300 km south of

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

and 1600 km north-west of the Australian mainland. It operated as a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

for over four years during the 1990s. It was one of the world's most profitable prior to bankruptcy and generated over $5 billion a year profits.

History

The casino/resort was conceived in the early 1980s by

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

property developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...

Frank Woodmore as a business opportunity following the closure in 1981, for political reasons, of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

's three licensed casinos, all of which were in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

. With Jakarta less than an hour's flight from Christmas Island, the casino was intended to attract

high roller A high roller, also referred to as a whale or cheetah, is a gambler who consistently wagers large amounts of money. High rollers often receive lavish " comps" from casinos to lure them onto the gambling floors, such as free private jet transfers ...

s from Indonesia and other Asian countries.Report to the Committee on the National Capital and External Territories. In 1985 a company, Christmas Island Resort Pty Ltd (CIR) was incorporated, with Woodmore, through Mercator Property Consultants Pty Ltd, initially holding 10% of the share capital, with other interests, principally controlled by Indonesian businessman Robby Sumampow, acquiring the remainder. Construction of the resort began late in the 1980s. On 5 November 1993 CIR was granted an Australian casino licence, with the building complex formally opened as the Christmas Island Casino and Resort on 18 December 1993. As envisaged, the casino catered mainly to a wealthy Asian clientele, with most of its patrons flying in from Jakarta, often by

private jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people. Business jets may be adapted for other roles, such as the evacuation of casualties or express parcel deliveries, and some are used by pub ...

. Business was facilitated by the Australian government, which issued special short-term visas for Christmas Island. Initially the resort operated profitably, with most revenue coming from the casino. However, after 1994, CIR made losses. The resort was badly affected by the

Asian Financial Crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998–1 ...

of 1997-98, and it suspended operations on 23 April 1998. On 28 July 1998 the Australian Minister for Regional Development, Territories and Local Government cancelled CIR's casino licence and, the following day, the company went into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

. In 2000, the resort was purchased from the liquidators by David Kwon, a

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

-based businessman. In July 2004 a proposal by KFL Star Resort, a consortium of South Korean investors registered in Perth, to reopen the casino was rejected by the Australian Government, with the

Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads was a position within the Australian federal government from 7 October 2003 until 3 December 2007. The outer ministry position of Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads was create ...

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Ian Campbell, quoted as saying that in the "interests of the Christmas Island community, the Australian Government has decided to make legislative changes to prohibit casino operations".Murdoch (2004). In July 2009 it was reported that the

Australian Federal Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

was negotiating with Kwon about using the resort facilities to relieve overcrowding at the island's Immigration Detention Centre because of increases in boatloads of

asylum seekers An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country and applies for asylum (i.e., international protection) in that other country. An asylum seeker is an immigrant who has been forcibly displaced and mi ...

attempting to reach Australia. In response, the island's Shire President, Gordon Thomson, said that the Australian government should take control of the then

mothball Mothballs are small balls of chemical pesticide and deodorant, sometimes used when storing clothing and other materials susceptible to damage from mold or moth larvae (especially clothes moths like ''Tineola bisselliella''). Composition Older ...

ed resort and hand it over to the Christmas Island community to operate as a tourist resort. In 2013, Kwon started negotiations with the Australian government for the possibility to lease the resort as a viable solution to the island's growing economic needs.

Description

The resort lies on a 47 ha block of land, a 99-year

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

issued in 1989, at Waterfall Bay on the north-eastern coastal terraces of the island, not far from the

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

. It contains 156 guest rooms and suites as well as other resort facilities such as restaurants, nightclubs and a swimming pool. When it operated as a casino the facilities included 43

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s and 23

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

tables. CIR also owned the Christmas Island Lodge, containing 80 motel-style rooms, in

Poon Saan Poon Saan is the second largest village on Christmas Island, an external territory of Australia. It is administrated as part of the island capital - Flying Fish Cove. Ethnic Chinese make up the majority of inhabitants. In Cantonese, Poon Saan ( ...

as well as 144

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

s for staff accommodation. It has 156 fully furnished hotel rooms of which 52 are two-storey suites with ocean views. One of its two modern kitchens was leased by the government in 2002 to provide meals for asylum seekers.Christmas Island casino urged by report
/ref>

Notes

Sources

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External links

Christmas Island Resort

Will Christmas Island get its casino back?
{{coord, 10, 27, 26, S, 105, 42, 18, E, display=title Casinos in Australia Organisations based in Christmas Island Casinos completed in 1993 Defunct casinos 1993 establishments in Australia