July 10, 2001 — The V.I. Casino Control Commission announced Monday that it has received its fifth casino gambling application, about two weeks after the body partially approved the territory’s fourth hotel-casino venture.
Robin Bay LLC, which is doing business as Seven Hills Beach Resort and Casino, filed its application Monday, according to Casino Commission chairwoman Eileen Petersen. In a release, Petersen said the venture will include a Tier II hotel-casino with 300 rooms and a minimum of 100 time-share units. The resort will feature a 20,000-square-foot casino, an 18-hole golf course, restaurants and retail shops.
According to the V.I. Casino Control Act passed in 1995, a Tier II hotel-casino must consist of 300 to 1,400 rooms and a 10,000-square-foot casino. Application fees are $200,000 for the first two-year license and $175,000 for the one after that.
On June 28, after about three days of closed-door sessions, the Casino Commission gave Paul Golden of Golden Gaming LLC a year to prove the integrity of his financial backing for his proposed 400-room hotel-casino somewhere on the island’s east end. Golden also must prove that the resort is suitable for the island and that his team has the experience to operate such a facility. If Golden, who is from New Jersey, is successful in all regards, he will be granted a casino license.
It took the V.I. Division of Gaming Enforcement about eight months of background investigations before public hearings into Golden Gaming’s proposal began.
Golden Gaming's Tier II casino license application was the fourth filed with the commission since 1996. Only one has resulted in a casino-hotel being operated on St. Croix: The Divi Carina Bay Resort opened in March 2000.
A second application, by a Colorado-based company, was withdrawn after the commission balked at allowing the company to add the mandated number of rooms over time.
The third application was from St. Croix businessman and attorney Mario de Chabert. His project, an eight-story, 193-room casino-hotel on his family's property near Sunny Isle Shopping Center, is in limbo because de Chabert is suffering from health problems.
Petersen said the most recent application proves that St. Croix is a stable gaming jurisdiction.
"It takes time to build the basic foundation for the casino industry," Petersen said. "And the commissioners recognize that investors were hesitant to pursue opportunities here until they were fully convinced of our commitment to running a legitimate operation."
