U.S. Navy Joins Forces With Marines In Online Gambling Haven Costa Rica
First the online gambling Mecca of Costa Rica announced grandiose plans to have some 7000 U.S. Marines occupy that Central American nation, now comes word that the Legislative Assembly has granted docking permission to the 800-meter navy ship USS Iwo Jima, scheduled to arrive in the Caribbean port of Limón in late August.
Unnerving to those Internet gambling operators in Costa Rica who worry about persecution that has taken place in the States over recent years? Hardly.
Said one operator commenting on the Gambling911.com website: “(The) Marines landing here will have no effect on gaming and if anything only make this a better place to operate if they can reduce the drug cartels and other rampant crime in the country - every shop here is 100% legal by Costa Rican laws and they are not about to let a foreign country send in troups because us pow backwad spanishes just don't know what to do about it.”
In fact, the primary objective of the U.S. military presence in Costa Rica, a country that does not have a military of its own, is to deter drug trafficking and the violence that often comes with it. Costa Rica fears becoming the next Mexico. Speak to any operator and they will confirm how crime has increased dramatically in recent years. Well off U.S. ex pats routinely make for the best targets.
The Navy ship will actually serve to provide medical assistance as opposed to the big guns.
“The support in services and supplies for our country is around $500,000; this is what we will receive with a ship of this type. The cost of the entire mission is greater than $3 million,” Viviana Martín, legislator with the National Liberation Party, told the Tico Times. “This is a mission known as ‘continuing the promise of 2010.' … (It is helping) in many countries, not just in Costa Rica, but in Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua and Panama.”
The legality of the Joint Patrol Agreement between Costa Rica and the United States, which allows U.S. naval vessels to enter Costa Rican waters to counter drug trafficking, is under review by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV).
Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
