Government missteps have left the casino industry in Bermuda dead in the water, a senior industry insider has claimed.

The comments come after the St Regis hotel declined to say whether its plans for a gaming hub were continuing in the wake of the collapse of a long-running attempt for one to be established at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club.

A perceived lack of independence for the Bermuda Gaming Commission and the casino sector coming under the remit of David Burt, who is Minister of Finance as well as Premier, have been cited as key reasons why foreign investors, and US banks, do not want to get involved with gambling on the island.

An industry insider said that changes to gaming legislation in 2017 had been a “foul-up” and recent government attempts to revise the legislation would not work.

The controversial 2017 changes gave the minister responsible for gaming to give “general directions” to the gaming commission which the commission had to accept and enabled the minister to remove members of the commission where the member’s conduct “may amount to misconduct or breach of best regulatory practice”.

The well-placed source told The Royal Gazette: “I think the idea of a casino in Bermuda is pretty much dead now. It’s dead in the water. It’s been such a foul-up.

“I think when the Government changed the laws in 2017, people outside of Bermuda saw this as a Mickey Mouse operation and just said they were not going to invest in the place.

“I feel sorry for the people at the Princess because they put a lot of money into that situation and in the end were forced to walk away.

“For St Regis it is not so bad. Basically, they had a shell ready to go, but they can turn that shell into conference rooms or something else.

“But the whole situation is just a mess, really. The lack of independence for the gaming commission is the thing that killed it.“

A spokeswoman for Hotelco, which owns the St Regis Hotel, has declined to comment on whether its casino project is going ahead.

A move by the holiday destination to end its attempt to set up a gambling hub would be a blow to one of the Government’s key economic aims of creating a casino culture on the island.

Such a decision would follow in the wake of the collapse of an initiative to set up a casino at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club in January, which had been expected to generate 100 jobs.

Creating a casino sector has been identified by the Government as one of four key engines of economic recovery.

Mr Burt has made the creation of a casino industry a signature policy of his administration, announcing sweeping changes to legislation regulating the sector in February.

The Premier loosened longstanding controls on what type of casino would be allowed on the island by choosing to let the BGC consider a variety of options submitted by would-be operators.

But industry figures have long argued that foreign involvement, particularly from required US correspondent banks, is being put off by the appearance of a lack of independence for the BGC.

Crunch talks were held between the owners of the St Regis hotel and a representative of their proposed casino operator with the Premier and Vance Campbell, the Minister of Tourism, at the end of January after the failure of the Hamilton Princess gaming bid.

The Premier said after the meeting: “I continue to be impressed by the commitment of St Regis to introducing a casino at the hotel and our discussion examined legislative and practical ways to achieve that shared goal.

“The idle and irresponsible media speculation around gaming has failed to change the owner’s positive outlook for a casino at the property.

“It is ridiculous to suggest that the Government has not invested time and effort into achieving gaming for Bermuda.”

The St Regis, in St George’s, was granted the island’s first casino licence last October, but no date was announced for an opening.

Earlier this year, Century Casinos pulled out of plans to develop a casino at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club after being involved in the efforts for eight years.

Peter Hoetzinger, Century’s president and chief executive, said that with the existing legislative framework, the company could not foresee the project being completed in a reasonable time, if at all.

The hotel added that it halted a search for a new operator pending “a clearer road map from the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission on a viable path forward to seeing a casino open its doors”.

The Government and the BGC were contacted for comment.