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housing the Dail. The casino is owned by Luke Ivory, a top poker player in
Ireland. Two floors offer many poker tables as well as blackjack, roulette, brag,
and punto banco games. There are 40 employees.17
Around the comer is the Fitzwilliam Casino Club. This facility is built into
Clifton Hall, a structure that used to be a Catholic Church and nun’s residence.
Marketing manager David Hinkson hinted that statesman Eamon de Valera just
might be rolling in his grave, as the very strict (and anti-gambling) Catholic
moralist politician used to come to the building to say morning prayers before
going to the Dail to lead parliamentary debates. In 2003 eighteen Dublin
businessmen sought to establish a “suitable” place where interested businessmen
could play poker.18
The club offers tables for several types of poker—Texas hold ’em, Omaha,
and Three Card Poker, as well as mahjong, kalooki, blackjack, punto banco, and
roulette. There are 21 tables operating on two floors. Each night there is a poker
tourney. The casino employees 110 employees and is open 24 hours a day.19
Hinkson indicates that the club abides strictly by the 1956 law by requiring
very tight membership rules with picture identifications and background checks.
Members must be 21 years old. At the non-poker games, one player volunteers
to be the “bank,” assuring that even odds are given. At poker the table stakes are
limited. The casino enforces business rules pertaining to money laundering.
They also follow a code of conduct designed by the Gaming and Leisure
Association of Ireland, an association founded by its directors of the Fitzwilliam
Club in 2006.20
In October 2003 international casino manager J.J. Woods launched
Ireland’s first full fledged casino. In 2000 he had opened a casino called
“Macau” on Parnell Street in an area with many Chinese businesses. That was a
downmarket facility and is no longer in operation. Woods’s new facility was
called Silks, themed around horseracing and the colors of the famous racing
stables of Ireland. It is located on Earls Fort Terrace amongst foreign embassies
and other Georgian mansions, across from the very upmarket Conrad Hotel.
Upmarket is the motif as it caters to “high ranking figures from the world of
business, media and the horseracing fraternity,” and other celebrities. A special
opening was attended by celebrities, models, and sports figures. Woods has
sought to have a club that could easily fit into the offerings of London’s Mayfair
with its Ritz, Curzon, and Mayfair casinos.21
PART II: Will Irish Casinos Become Legally Green in 2008?
My walking tour ended with me asking my original questions: why have
casinos been illegal, and what are the prospects for changing their status? To
find out I simply asked people in Ireland, “Why?” From their answers I
identified seven major factors to explain the anti-casino position of the Republic
of Ireland. For each factor I also identified major changes suggesting that
legalization could be forthcoming.