The upsides
1) Something for tourists to do (increasing their options to 1)
2) Inject money in to the tourist industry
3) Create jobs
4) Increase a dying tourism industry

Downsides?
1) Increase in crime (debateable)
2) Moral problems - creating gambling addicts (debateable)

Casinos would save the Island tourism if done right - but could we do it right?

Yeah, in today's internet world, if you want to be addicted to gamblibng, it's a click away.

I can hear it now.  "Once you let people have legalized gambling they might have to do the unholy act of allowing liquor stores to sell booze on Sunday! Dem's God's holy day! Lord have mercy on us all!  Oh and if you need me, I'll be at King Henry's though, where I can buy liquor on a Sunday night until I'm falling off my moped."


Most of this island's archaic hypocracies need to go the way of the dodo! 

Casinos if done properly and tastefully would be an immense boon to Bermuda's tourism.  Enough of the revenue could be produced by tourists and ex-pats who are not going to be long term social problems to Bermuda because of the gambling (which will subsidize the relatively few locals who you just know will use gambling as an excuse to become even more burdens on Bermudian society than they already are).

Well, if they're concerned about creating gambling addicts, they could make it illegal for residents to gamble. You must show your passport to get in. They have done this in Monaco, Bahamas, and Belize, at least. Singapore is considering the same.

Or wait, they could make it illegal for Bermudians, but allow ex-pats to get addicted and take all their money.

One problem is that by the time we realize we need a casino to save tourism, it will take a decade to have it actually built between all the cronyism, laziness, red tape etc.. that Bermuda will apply to the process.

As an aside, the old club med building would make a good spot for a Hotel/Casino...