Holidaymakers from Ireland visit the Isle of Man to beat the Irish government's ban on organised gambling.
Every weekend Hibernian Airlines run gambling specials from Dublin to the Isle of Man. Passengers avail of a night at the Palace hotel and casino in the Isle of Man's capital town Douglas.
In the absence of organised gambling clubs in Ireland,
The Isle of Man woos our gamblers.
Those visiting the Douglas casino are most likely to be working class people rather than of the James Bond variety.
In spite of church opposition, the Isle of Man legitimised organised gambling in 1963. Cecil McFee is a labour member of the legislative council, the upper house of the Manx parliament. He led the official opposition to the casino idea. As a Methodist he is against the casino morally and also opposes it on economic and political grounds.
It could be disastrous.
Business is booming in the casino on a nightly basis. A croupier gives her opinion on the gamblers she sees throughout the course of her work. For many of them she is incidental. Whether gamblers win or lose,
It’s nothing to do with me really as were just indifferent to the job, we’re just dealing with cards, and that all.
The casino in the Palace Hotel in Douglas is run by Sir Dudley Cunliffe-Owen. He acknowledges the casino cannot rival those of Cannes or Monte Carlo. However it does attract wealthy industrialists and those who cannot afford to visit the French Riviera.
Dudley Cunliffe-Owen dismisses the notion that casinos attract gangsters. A casino run by one company legally operating with government control is of no interest to those involved in organised crime.
I think gambling is respectable.
Abroad, being a casino director or a croupier are respectable professions. In time Dudley Cunliffe-Owen believes this will be the case in England.
This episode of 'Newsbeat’ was broadcast on 29 September 1966. The reporter is Cathal O’Shannon.
