Merit Royal Hotel Casino

Merit Royal Hotel & Casino is the flagship property of the Merit Hotels group and the largest casino resort in the eastern Mediterranean, a 700-room complex on the hillside above Kyrenia (Girne) harbour in Northern Cyprus that has grown since its 1990s founding into a multi-tower resort campus with multiple casino floors, restaurants, nightclubs, a beach club, spa, and entertainment venues. The casino — with over 2,000 electronic gaming machines and approximately 120 table games — rivals mid-tier European casinos in scale and substantially exceeds anything on the Republic of Cyprus side of the island.

Northern Cyprus's casino economy exists for one reason above all others: Turkey, which occupies the northern third of the island and provides the primary access route (all flights to TRNC arrive via Turkish airports), banned gambling in 1998. The 4-kilometre crossing from Turkish Cyprus to Turkish Cyprus is technically seamless — no passport control separates TRNC-administered territory from Turkey — and the result is that millions of Turkish tourists cross to Northern Cyprus specifically to gamble in environments they cannot access at home.

The Merit Royal's setting adds considerable appeal beyond the casino floor: Kyrenia harbour — a perfectly preserved Ottoman-era horseshoe harbour with a Crusader castle at one end — is one of the Mediterranean's most photographed anchorages, and the drive along the Five Finger Mountains ridge above the town offers spectacular views across both the northern (Turkish mainland) and southern (Republic of Cyprus) horizons. The resort operates shuttle services from Ercan Airport and the border crossings from the south to capture both the package tourist and independent traveller markets.