St. Maarten Private Eye

While I most definately agree with you on the above flippers blog regarding crime, I must mention that the many casino's on the island is also another element in our society leading to crime.
While in the 70's, the casino's were mostly advertised to tourists, local persons were allowed to visit the casinos only 3 times per month.
At the entrance of the casino, there was always a government controller who would write down the names of locals to verify they did not visit more than the alloted 3 times per month.
I.D's were checked for names and age.
Nowadays, the government controller is there for decoration purposes, as they are many times hanging around the bar, around the slot machines, sometimes with a drink in their hand, or talking to the wait staff.
Everyone and anyone is allowed now to enter a casino, which has lead to many of our locals with a serious addiction problem.
The young people see the easy money that the many local and chinese people gambling away with lots of cash and think this is the easy life.
Either they go to work in the casino and never get a chance to further their studies, in the end working for years on a short term contract or the newer breed seems to think that it is easier to make a heist on a casino.
How many times have we seen mothers leaving their children in a car outside a casino, while they have been gambling for hours?
My opinion is that we should go back to the old system where locals are allowed only 3 times per month, however, nowadays we have casino's specially targeting locals, like the Tropicana Casino.
And then the big question ofcourse, what in the world do we still need casino government controllers for if they do not do their job, but then again, what is their job lately?