JERICHO — The biblical Joshua who led the Israelites’ siege of Jericho could never have dreamed that stud poker would breathe life into this dusty Palestinian-ruled town.
But last week, hundreds of Israelis made the 30-minute drive down the winding road from Jerusalem to place their bets at Oasis, a new gambling complex in Jericho and the first big foreign investment in the Palestinian self-rule areas.
They found 35 gaming tables and 220 slot machines amid the classic casino-kitsch decor beneath a star-studded ceiling. The $50 million casino is the first stage of a $150 million investment in a tourist complex that will eventually include 800 hotel rooms, a golf course and conference facilities.
Paul Herzfeld, chief executive of Casinos Austria, which operates Oasis, said Jericho was chosen because of “the magical setting of the desert against the city.”
His description of the setting made no mention of an impoverished Palestinian refugee camp directly across the road, perhaps because the camp is hard to see at night — it has no electricity.
The contrast between the casino’s opulence and the stark poverty of the refugee camp is just one of several controversies surrounding Oasis, but it did not impede the action on opening night last week, when nearly all the gamblers were Israeli.
Until Oasis opened, gamblers had to travel abroad, board a gambling ship off the southern resort town of Eilat or join illegal casino parties to bet.
At almost every table, at least one player wore a black skullcap.
Peering over the crowd gathered around a roulette table, a man who calls himself Mike, a clean-cut 38-year-old accountant from Tel Aviv wearing a rainbow-colored tie and a black kippah, prepared to wager up to $5,000 on blackjack.
“It’s a nice place, but a bit small,” says Mike, a veteran of casinos all over the world. “Living in Israel is one big gamble. If you gamble with your life, you might as well gamble with your money.”
Mike is not surprised at the number of observant Jews at the tables. Surmising that there are probably many more who have removed their kippot when they entered, he predicts that many American yeshiva students will also become regulars.
Some Israeli rabbis have already criticized the casino — a move that puts them on rare common ground with Islamic spiritual leaders who condemned Oasis, since Islam forbids both gambling and alcohol.
Hamas, the fundamentalist Islamic movement, was quick to lash out at the “devil” casino as an enterprise serving “the Zionists and those who became rich over the suffering of our people.”
Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat, eager to avoid confrontation with an increasingly powerful Hamas, prohibited Palestinians from the premises. Nevertheless, several Palestinians used foreign passports to attend opening night.
Though some residents of Jericho will find jobs at the resort, many are uncomfortable with the project and fear it could bring crime and prostitution to their quiet town.
Inside, the casino provided rare glimpses of what the “new Middle East” envisioned by former Prime Minister Shimon Peres could look like, even though that vision of regional peace and prosperity has virtually vanished in the peacemaking crises of the past two years.
Around the tables, drinks in hand, Israelis rubbed shoulders with wealthy Palestinians who defied Arafat’s orders to stay away. To enter the casino, Israelis nonchalantly submitted themselves to security checks by polite, smiling, Hebrew-speaking Palestinian security guards.
Casinos Austria officials refused to discuss the ownership structure of Oasis, and would not say the amount of taxes to be paid to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority from casino revenues. They did say that the agreement under which the casino was built was “favorable” to the company, one of the biggest casino groups in the world.
None of these issues mattered much to Israeli gamblers. In fact, as Israeli lawmakers heard about the heavy action and a potentially high tax windfall, some even talked about legalizing gambling in Israel.