Costa Rica is preparing to get a new casino. The $400-million Casino City Caribe will be built in Moín on the country’s Caribbean coast, with construction beginning early next year, The Costa Rica Star reported. There will be several phases of construction before the entire project is complete in 2027.
The project will offer three different casinos and three hotels with a total of 264 rooms. There will also be 219 apartments, two convention centers, a business center, a spa and wellness center and additional recreational facilities. It will have access to the beach, as well as a marina and a heliport.
Casino City Caribe is still in development, but has acquired the necessary support needed to proceed. The project was designed by the architecture firm Patti Rao Project out of Vancouver, Canada. It has reportedly already received approval by the Ministry of Environment, the Costa Rica Tourism Board (CRTB) and the municipality of Matina, where Moín is located.
The first phase of the project is expected to generate about 150 new jobs for the region. When construction is complete and all facilities are open, it will reportedly provide employment to around 1,500 people. There was no indication of how long each phase would take to complete.
Moín, lies close to the Caribbean port city of Limón, a multicultural community composed of individuals of mostly Italian, Chinese and Jamaican origin who were brought in to work on the country’s railroad project in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Until 1948, Costa Rica didn’t recognize Afro-Caribbean people as citizens and they were not allowed to leave the province of Limón.
Both Moín and Limón have port terminals and are responsible for the bulk of the transoceanic trade in and out of the country. Combined, they account for 80% of Costa Rica’s import and export traffic.
Almost 3 million tourists visited Costa Rica in 2017, according to the CRTB, with just under 50% coming from North America. Already in 2018, tourist numbers look to be improving, as there was an increase of 6% in tourism during the first quarter of the year compared to the first quarter of 2017. North American tourism to the country increased by 11.4%, while European tourism jumped by 14.2%.
