Tower Holdings resort development for Great Keppel Island cannot proceed without funding. Funding is apparently not available without a casino licence being granted. Is it a game of bluff or a stalemate? What’s at play; $600 million dollar investment, 1500 jobs, a reason for young people to stay in the region, a huge shot in the arm to the tourism and economic development of our region? The table players are Terry Agnew from Tower Holdings and the Minister for State Development Dr. Anthony Lynham. Whispering into their earphones, who knows? This whole saga has been messy from the start; I suspect we’ll never know the full story. That this region’s economic health can be positively affected by the granting of a casino licence is not a healthy sign in itself. However if we aren’t pro-active in getting State Government to reverse their decision on not making available another casino licence our region will be the loser, even though we don’t have a seat at the table. Otherwise if Tower Holdings assertions about conditions of funding are correct what happens. I don’t imagine anything, GKI stays the way it is; no new jobs, no $600 million spend, no ongoing indirect benefits to the region, no international tourist attraction, just further decay of the old resort; a different twist to get wrecked on GKI. Off course someone else will have to pick up the bill for the maintenance of the security fence around the old resort, most likely us as a rate or tax payer. So if you were invited as a representative of our region to be at this table with Mr. Agnew and Dr. Lynham who would you support? The player appearing to offering us nothing, even though the State Government will rake in the chips if they did grant the casino licence or Tower Holdings the only known player indicating intent to build a major world class resort on GKI. The stakes involve this region’s future. It would be a mighty shame if the State Government or Tower is putting this at risk in a game of bluff. We may never know the full story about what has and is going on in this near decade long game, but if we don’t support Tower’s call for a boutique licence we could be the losers.