With Jakarta less than an hour's flight from Christmas Island, the casino was intended to attract high rollers from Indonesia and other Asian countries. The casino/resort was conceived in the early 1980s by Perth property developer Frank Woodmore as a business opportunity following the closure in 1981, for political reasons, of Indonesia's three licensed casinos, all of which were in Jakarta. It was one of the world's most profitable prior to bankruptcy and generated over $5 billion a year profits. It operated as a casino for over four years during the 1990s. The Christmas Island Resort, often called the Christmas Island Casino, is a holiday resort on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the north-eastern Indian Ocean lying about 300 km south of Java and 1600 km north-west of the Australian mainland.
