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Loss of tourism revenue after ban (Cuba)
A casino ban in 1959 closed a key "anchor" for Havana's tourist product. Before the revolution, the evening was built according to the dinner - cabaret - game - bar scheme, where it was the casino that converted emotion into a high check and foreign exchange earnings. When the game disappeared, the night-time economy disintegrated, and with it, a significant portion of income, employment, and related demand.
1) Where exactly the money went missing: Revenue channel map
Casino turnover: bets at tables and on slots are the most marginal part of evening expenses.
Cross-selling: The "comps" and upsales (cocktails, late dinners, VIP seats) that existed through player movement.
Shows and scenes: cabarets received a viewer from the casino hall; without it, occupancy and the average check declined.
Hotel income: room loading, especially for high rollers and weekend tourists, depended on the availability of the game.
Transport and excursions: day tours, taxis, retro cars - everything was fueled by the evening motive "for the sake of show and game."
2) Short-term shock (1959-early 1960s)
Instant zeroing of gaming content: casinos are closed, tables and machines are seized.
Supply chain disruption: premium gastronomy, imported drinks, costume and stage workshops are losing their main demand.
Leaked footage: croupiers, pit bosses, entertainment managers, show producers leave or leave the profession.
Hotel standby mode: attempts to keep the audience with show programs without playing gave a partial effect, but without an "anchor" the average check fell.
3) Medium-term implications for tourism
Shifting tourist mix: Premium "night" segment from US disappears; the share of organized trips with a different motivation (culture, ideology, educational exchanges) is growing.
Reduction of foreign exchange earnings per guest: instead of "gaming" expenses, lower spending on food, museums, souvenirs remains.
Seasonality is exacerbated: without an "evening magnet," it is more difficult to fill dips outside the peak months.
Fall in investment motivation: hotel projects lose their source of quick payback; modernization is postponed or at the expense of the state.
4) Who was hardest hit
City flagships: Vedado and Malecona casino hotels (formerly Riviera, Capri, Deauville, Habana Hilton/Libre) have lost the core of the business model.
Cabaret and clubs: Tropicana and other scenes are preserved as showgrounds, but without the "game" delta.
Small business around the shop window: bartenders, musicians, taxi drivers, florists, laundries, tailors - the "thin periphery" of the evening economy.
5) Domino effect across service chains
F&B (food and drink): Premium positions and late-night kitchens formed around the game's pikiers - a decline in sales after midnight.
Retail and crafts: less impulse purchases "after winning/after the show."
Transport: fall in night orders, fewer transfers between hotels, clubs and private salons.
Event industry: budget compression for decor, light, sound, costumes - a minimum of experiments and premieres.
6) Macrooptics: what happened to the balance of payments
A decrease in the dollar mass at the box office of hotels and nightlife venues, an increase in the share of "daytime" and "cultural" tourism with a more modest check.
The outflow of "fast" foreign exchange earnings: the cash turnover of the night economy in its former form has disappeared, and government channels are redistributing spending to priority social sectors.
7) Employment and labor market transformation
Employment shift: from the night economy to hotels without casinos, cultural centers, gastronomy and government agencies.
Underloaded skills: unique competencies (pit management, gambling marketing, show production) become "redundant" and are partially lost or left.
8) Regional distortions
Havana loses role as "Caribbean night capital"; Varadero and beach resorts rely on daytime recreation, family format and animation.
Domestic demand is weaker compensates for the lack of external premium flow: the average check is lower, the evening is shorter.
9) What came to replace: trying to offset revenue
Cultural programs: concerts, folklore, jazz clubs, dance schools, historical routes.
Hotel animation: "casino night demo" without money, quizzes, sports and karaoke - keeping guests within the framework of the ban.
Betting on the image of the past: a retro tour of the architecture of the "golden era" as an unmonetized memory of the night showcase.
10) Why the losses turned out to be structural and not temporary
Prohibition as an ideology, not a pause: the absence of a regulator and licensing did not leave "soft forms" of the return of the game.
Dependence of the pre-war model on an external client: without American tourist flow, the previous economy is not recovering even theoretically.
Institutional reversal: the priority is the social sphere and planning, not the high-margin night industry.
11) Indirect results for the country's brand
Narrative shift: From "Las Vegas Caribbean" to cultural and historical agenda
Loss of premium segment: High rollers and "weekend high-spend" migrated to other jurisdictions in the region.
Long trace: even decades later, the memory of "night Havana" attracts researchers and tourists, but the income of this interest is incomparable with the previous gaming.
12) Lessons for economists and tour operators
1. The "entertainment anchor" forms a check: without a core (casinos in the past, event magnets in the present), evening income crumbles.
2. Diversification is more important than euphoria: dependence on one segment makes the city vulnerable to political and geopolitical shocks.
3. Institutions are more important than facades: sustainable income is based on rules and trust, not just infrastructure.
The casino ban deprived Cuba of a key driver of overnight foreign exchange earnings and brought down an ecosystem where the game linked hotels, stages, restaurants and transportation. Part of the demand flowed into cultural formats, but premium tourist income did not recover: the "anchor" on which the high check was kept disappeared. The historical turn of 1959 was not just a change of entertainment - it was a change in the economic logic of tourism, the consequences of which are still felt.