Jamaica’s Casino Gaming Commission has moved the country’s first licensed casino closer to opening, but only after a final round of conditions is met. The regulator said Adamas Grand Casino Limited received its licence on 29 July for the proposed casino at the Princess Grand Jamaica Resort in Green Island, Hanover, yet it still cannot begin operations until it satisfies the remaining requirements, with a deadline of 31 March 2027.
The commission has set out a layered control system that will follow the casino from the moment a player registers through to ongoing regulatory monitoring. It includes know-your-customer checks, scrutiny of suspicious transactions and sources of wealth, anti-money-laundering controls, surveillance systems, responsible-gaming interventions and direct regulatory access to the property.
According to the commission, those safeguards are meant to address the main risks associated with casino gaming, including money laundering, organised crime, problem gambling and the exploitation of vulnerable players. Damion McKenzie, the commission’s senior director of enforcement and investigation, said the regime is built around ongoing monitoring rather than a one-time review of an operator’s anti-money-laundering system, and that audits will continue across the life of the licence. He said the regulator will check whether proper KYC and anti-money-laundering checks were done and whether a player’s financial profile and source of wealth make sense.
The responsible-gaming framework is similarly detailed. The commission said it will rely on staff training, player information, behaviour monitoring, exclusion and self-exclusion mechanisms and controls on advertising. Cleveland Allen, the commission’s chief executive, said the system will allow staff to spot people showing signs of harm and intervene with a cooling-off period. He also said Jamaica will operate a cashless system, which will help casinos track patterns such as constant gambling, topping up, chasing losses and losses.
The regulator said surveillance will be a core part of compliance, with systems that support oversight and space for commission officers to access and monitor the casino premises at any time. Allen said the commission would have similar monitoring requirements to those used in major gaming markets, citing the density of cameras on a Las Vegas property as an example.
The licence is conditional and does not yet authorise play. Caleigh Reid, a commission legal officer, said the operator must satisfy all remaining deliverables before getting the go-ahead, while the commission continues working with Adamas Grand as it moves toward opening.
The project is part of an approved integrated resort development, which means casino gaming in Jamaica remains restricted to large-scale resorts rather than stand-alone gambling venues. The commission said the project represents about US$800 million of investment and is expected to generate jobs, local procurement and broader tourism spending. It also said the milestone reflects more than a decade of regulatory preparation, including the building of licensing, investigative, compliance and technology systems.
