Entertainment: Oasis Casino
Glittering gold and white like a pre-millennial mirage above the desert sands”
—— Matthew Kalman, Midnight at the Oasis, EVENING STANDARD (London), 1999.
Fig 1. Photo of Jericho Landscape.
Jericho: City of Leisure
In Jericho, it is easy to pretend you are somewhere else that is not Palestine. For many, Jericho feels like a city of leisure and abundance. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley and situated near the northern tip of the Dead Sea. It has a subtropical climate, offering warm temperatures and lots of sunshine throughout the year. This makes Jericho an ideal escape for people seeking a contrast to the cooler and more temperate regions of the West Bank for Palestinians. Unlike the rest of the West Bank, Jericho is the only place where the land is flat and plentiful. The city’s accessibility plays a significant role in attracting people from both the West Bank and Israeli tourists from occupied territories. It is only a short drive from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other major cities in Israel, making it convenient for those with the right paperwork to access a weekend retreat. Because of this, leisure and entertainment are big parts of Jericho, and it’s no surprise that Jericho is the biggest destination for domestic resorts for Palestinians and one of the biggest for Israelis.
In more recent times, Jericho has undergone significant development, with the construction of modern resorts, hotels, and entertainment facilities that cater to the needs of tourists. This wave of change started with the Oslo Accords of 1993, turning Jericho into a laboratory for the new production and arrangement of Palestinian urban space as a state project.
When travelling on the major route from Jerusalem and passing the Israeli checkpoint at the town's entrance, the first thing you see on your right is a massive ongoing construction housing project called Jericho Gate and a high-end hotel, the Oasis Hotel. Previously, it was known as the Intercontinental Hotel Jericho, neighboring the Oasis Casino, which was one of the most profitable casinos in the world back at that time.
Fig 2. Photo of Oasis Hotel，2005.
Political and Historical Background
After months of covert negotiations, Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) signed the Oslo Accords (officially known as the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements) in Washington, DC, on September 13, 1993.
Fig 3. Photo of Oslo Accords in 1993, The Washington Post article and a stamp of Nobel Prize of it in 1994
Oasis Casino was the first major cross-border development project involving Israel, the PA, and Jordan since 1993. It marked a new future for larger-scale financial partnerships between these three governments and their peoples. But the idea to build a flashy casino was mostly an independent decision coming from the PA along with their investors.
The PA chose to construct a casino because it was in dire need of a high-profile, private venture that would be sure to succeed and draw in much-needed funding from foreign investors. When compared to more sensible infrastructure projects like housing, highways, electric generation plants, or water treatment facilities, a casino made more sense to PA planners due to its eye-catching nature and potential to generate millions of dollars in investment proceeds and tax returns for the PA.
It was an easy decision for them to make. Dambling was and still is illegal in Israel, turning many to Turkey, which become the most popular gambling destination at one point, however this was closed down by the Turkish government in 1998 due to religious reasons. Secondly, gaming industry analysts calculated that worldwide Israeli gambling exceeded US$500 million annually, making Israelis among the world's most prolific gamblers. Third, surveys carried out at the time indicated that the presence of gambling would encourage European visitors to travel to Israel and consequently the PA's share of the West Bank. The PA saw this opportunity of supply and demand for gambling and they took it immediately while the legal structure of Palestine after the handshake in 1993 was weak enough for the government to get away with this decision.
Casino’s management
But the PA knew they needed an expert for casino management. So, Casino Austria International Limited or CAIL stepped into the picture. With years of experience, close partnership and operations in many countries like South Africa, Hungary and Middle Eastern areas. They knew well that a successful casino must first establish that basic security - of person and property. But Casino Austria also understood that being successful meant more than just ensuring the security of its customers. It realised that in order to attract customers to its casino, it needed to create an atmosphere that would distract them from the harsh reality outside.
Fig 4. Jericho Location compared to other countries
Fig 5. Outside of Oasis Casino and the chips with CAIL and Oasis casino logos.
Location
The choice of Jericho as the casino's location was influenced by its proximity to Israel and Jordan, making it easily accessible for foreign visitors. Especially it has to be safe, to ensure the patron’s safety as they are the money makers of the casino and had little chance of potential political violence. It had to be Western enough to appeal to the American convention and tourism industry
Fig 6. Location of Jericho
Fig 7. Oasis Casino looking from the satellite view.
Fig 8. Jericho city looking from the satellite view.
Influence of American Dream
“The graphic sign in space has become the architecture of this landscape. If you take the signs away, there is no place. The desert town has intensified communication along the highway.”
”
— Robert Venturi, Learning From Las Vegas
Fig 9. signs and billboards of Las Vegas. Courtesy: Carriage Trade, Nicholas Knight
In his book, Learning from Las Vegas, Robert Venturi did talk about the architecture of the symbols and billboards of casinos. “The graphic sign in space has become the architecture of this landscape. If you take the signs away, there is no place. The desert town has intensified communication along the highway.”
If we take a look at the OASIS sign outside, even the name itself was heavily influenced by the Sin City itself. It was designed as a way to communicate with its patrons and maybe bring a fragment of the American Dream to Jericho.
In Las Vegas hotels, the registration desk is always behind you, and the gaming tables and machines are in front. The casino room is located in the front. The internal area and terrace, with their exaggerated seclusion from the outside world, offer the feel of an oasis.
Fig 10. Logo of Oasis Casino.
Fig 12. 3D Model of Oasis Casino and Hotel.
Fig 11. signs and billboards of Las Vegas. Courtesy: Carriage Trade, Nicholas Knight
Identification
The Ridotto was Europe's first legalised casino. The Ridotto was an early model for the use of gambling revenues to support state finance by combining the interests of mercantile gamblers and government authorities.
The casino charter stated that the Ridotto was public. However, due to the casino's high stakes and formal dress code, only nobles could afford to play at its tables; one such discriminatory injunction, for example, required players to wear three-cornered hats and masks to participate in Il Ridotto's games; less affluent Venetians were thus barred from making wagers at the casino's tables.
Similar to the Ridotto, even though the Oasis Casino was advertised as open to the public, people's identification were being checked at the entrance of the casino. When entering the casino, guests were required to show identification and have their profile placed on a computer. Through this procedure, CAIL can identify gamblers who have recently suffered major financial losses and require them to provide proof of their financial stability before allowing them to return to the casino.
Fig 13. Collage of The Ridotto patrons’ dresscode.
Fig 15.
Fig 14.
Fig 17.
Fig 14,15,16,17. Photos of inside the casino.
Fig 16.
The casino was open to Israelis, Jordanians, and international passport holders, with approximately 94 percent of its visitors coming from Israel. However, Palestinians were generally not allowed inside the casino, except for those who were employed there.
Moreover, the casino employed more than 1,000 people, making it the biggest private employer in the West Bank. About 70 percent of the Palestinian employees working at the site came from the nearby Aqabat Jaber refugee camp. It is such a big contrast and surreal to see that one side of the road is a massive casino full of hedonism, while the other side is a refugee camp where people are struggling with basic amenities. But in a while, at the peak of these peaceful years, in 1998, the Oasis Casino kind of became a symbol of what peace could be: Israelis and foreigners equally visited it, blending with the Palestinian staff, who were forbidden from gambling but allowed to work there.
Along with that, all the gaming tables were managed by experienced foreign croupiers and dealers; most of them are either British or European, with a small number of Palestinian card dealers.
Fig 19. Palestinian worker working in the hotel vs the European card dealers working in the hotel.
Fig 18. Aqaba Jaber refugee camp and the casino’s location.
Financial Context and Investors
The PA’s desire to see economic growth in Palestine was a major factor in the construction of the Oasis, as it was believed that this would convince Palestinians that they had a stake in the peace process. In reality, the Oasis Casino has caused a major blow to the idea of economic empowerment itself.
The PA was able to enlist the support of the Austrian National Bank, another investor from Austria, for the Jericho project with the help of CAIL. The PA leased out a quarter of the Oasis' ownership to Austrian investors, with the remaining 10% going to the Bank and 15% to CAIL. The Palestinian Authority (PA) thereafter received a 30% shareholding through the Palestinian Services Corporation ("PLC"), a quasi-governmental organisation under its authority, to conceal its involvement in the project due to the negative public perception of the casino. The other 45% were anonymous investors from Palestine, Israel, and Europe.
Oasis Casino's Shareholders
The casino was initially only open from Thursday at 2 p.m. to Sunday at 6 a.m., but in only three months it had expanded to include twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and roughly 15% more gaming tables. As of that point, the casino declared that over 170,000 people had entered its premises. After another six months, there were 93% more tables than there were on the first day of operation; the Oasis held more than 220 slot machines, and the casino had seen over 700,000 patrons.
As a result, both the PA tax collectors and the casino's investors have reaped financial rewards. Before the casino shifted to operating seven days a week, it was making at least US$350,000 a day in just the first three months. A year later, it was reportedly making US$1 million daily. The profit was so high that the initial investment was returned in less than two or three years, as originally planned. Keep in mind that the casino investment was US$50 million.
Public Opinions
The casinos were met with opposition, particularly from a religious point of view, when they were first established. Due to the fact that gambling is forbidden in Islam, there have been objections raised by a number of religious organisations and groups. On the other hand, the most significant source of opposition to the Oasis is the growing disapproval among the general public of the authoritarian government. The majority of Palestinians thought that this casino won’t have a significant positive impact on their lives. Just like its name, to most Palestinians, the casino was just an oasis, a fragment of some Western dream.
The casino’s success was short-lived. After the second Intifada, due to security concerns, which led to the absence of Israeli visitors, the casino was closed down shortly after that, in 2000.
Fig 20. Photo of patrons playing inside the casino
Testimony
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We are not in need of a casino, we need factories, we don't need a casino. Who is going to come to the casino, the rich people from the Arab countries, that they collect our money, and they send this money back to Europe? That's a way to steal our money
SOT manager of taxi stand
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As a matter of fact, most of the people here don't understand what is the meaning of this project, because it is not familiar here. Besides, when you mention such a name casino, they relating it with the religious meaning, and as long as it's forbidden in Islam, they don't appreciate that. Most of them they are going to play for a while - after a few months, I think, most of these people are going to play in the casino
SOT casino supporter, Khalil Abu Musa
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To be successful, that’s the game of the gaming industry. That’s you want a envidently successful business, you give profit to the people who invested the money, give profit to the people living here and to people enjoying our resort. That’s what we expected.
One of the European investors’ representatives
Fig 20. Photo of patrons playing inside the casino
Fig 21. Collage of the relationship of casino and the city.
The Aftermath
Though it was a hit with private investors and the PA, the casino was not the greatest way to raise Jericho's standard of living at the time. It makes us question the transparency of the city’s legal system. The casino will always be remembered as a short-term economic success and a long-term failure with wasted potential with Jericho’s tourism industry. The casino was only the first phase of a $150 million resort complex that, according to its Austrian developers, would also include a golf course, several hotels, and restaurants on the outskirts of Jericho.
In the present, the only thing left of the casino was the name Oasis from the used-to-be Intercontinental Hotel as a homage. In an article called "All the Palestinians Got From Oslo Was KFC," the author described the atmosphere of the hotel as sad and eerie.
"The hotel itself reflected the sad reality of the post-Oslo failure... But it was the adjoining casino, shuttered in 2000, that was truly eerie.”
There are ongoing debates and articles about whether they should reopen the casino or not, but given the current situation, it seems like the casino will stay in the past. But aside from the casino itself, Jericho is still a hotspot for tourism and housing development projects like Jericho Gate, a private residential project, or several water theme parks being built in the city.
Fig 22. Satellite photo of the current Oasis Hotel.
“The hotel itself reflected the sad reality of the post-Oslo failure... But it was the adjoining casino, shuttered in 2000, that was truly eerie.”
— Dalia Hatuqa, All the Palestinians Got From Oslo Was KFC