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Casino builder
promises more
than just gambling

He says a Hawaii resort
would be like his lavish
Bahamian properties

---

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

On Paradise Island in the Bahamas, you can launch yourself off a six-story water slide that goes through a Plexiglas tube surrounded by sharks before depositing you in a safe lagoon.

You can play explorer and discover the ersatz mysteries of the lost civilization of Atlantis or nibble world-class cuisine in one of 40 restaurants.

And you can also do a little gambling.

Those are some of the amenities of Atlantis and the Ocean Club, two properties developed by Sun International at a cost estimated at $1 billion.

Now, Butch Kerzner, president of Sun International, is looking at Hawaii.

Kerzner, a South African who now divides his time between New York and the Bahamas, briefed some key legislators Thursday on his plans for an $800 million resort and casino at Ko Olina.

He is asking the Legislature to allow gambling on a single piece of property, in return for which the state would assess the casino a tax or charge, which could be applied to college scholarships.

"Gaming would be just one element; it is just part of the experience," said Kerzner, the Stanford-educated son of Sol Kerzner, considered by gambling industry experts to be one of the most successful pioneers in resort destinations.

After developing a string of South African resorts, the senior Kerzner put his son in charge of the Paradise Island property, described by Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham as lackluster, underperforming.

The island resort is now the underpinning for Bahama tourism and "has fueled the single biggest development in Bahamian tourism and must be credited with energizing the regeneration of our once-upon-a-time declining tourism and hotel sector," Ingraham said in a speech in December.

In Hawaii, Kerzner sees a major resort that would do the same thing to Hawaii's tourism. He thinks it would work as well as the Bahamian experience. "Hawaii fits with what we do," he said.

Gov. Ben Cayetano traveled with representatives of the resort and casino in December to see the Paradise Island hotel.

Initially, Cayetano said he was looking at the aquarium, billed as the largest in the world, but added later that he also talked to hotel executives about the Hawaii casino proposal.

Sun International has sold its properties in South Africa and is in the process of selling its Atlantic City casino. It also owns a half-interest in Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut and was considering the purchase of the Las Vegas Desert Inn.

Kerzner thinks the combination of a world-class resort and casino would be a natural in Hawaii, especially considering the Japanese tourist market.

"The market is primed for this kind of a destination ... there is a real opportunity to develop a product that will catch the Japanese market," Kerzner said.

The benefit for Hawaii would be in helping to stimulate the economy with a huge two- or three-year-long construction project, the extra 5,000 or so jobs in the resort and the thousands of extra jobs created by the mega-resort. Add to that the tax on the casino, Kerzner said, and "we don't see a downside."

Gambling critics, however, say that letting any legalized casino gambling into Hawaii would be a serious mistake.

Opponents warn that the first casino would just be a step in legalizing gambling across the state and bringing in the social ills of organized crime and compulsive gambling.

In 1997, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission conducted a $1 million, yearlong investigation into charges that Sol Kerzner had paid a $400,000 bribe 11 years earlier to a corrupt South African tribal chief.

The investigation resulted in a finding that the allegations could not be proven and Kerzner testified that he didn't know the money was going to the corrupt official.

Sun in Hawaii, however, faces an uphill battle of another kind, said House Speaker Calvin Say.

He said after meeting Thursday with Kerzner that the businessman should be given the chance to make a presentation to the Legislature.

"You cannot have one man make a decision on an $800 million proposal," Say said.

But he said he doubted whether Kerzner would be able to persuade the Legislature.

"I'm not sure if there is the critical mass," Say explained.

If the proposal was given to the Legislature four or five months before it opened, it would have a better chance, Say said.

"It is late to be developing the education needed for a decision such as this," Say said.