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Venice casino bidding process for its acquisition has been closed with no offering submitted bid, but this does not sound like bad news for potential investors and might open new interesting gaming law scenarios. The terms of the Venice casino bidding process prescribed the acquisition of the management of the Venice Casino for a period of 30 years against an investment that was expected to exceed € 500 million during the course of the term of management of the casino. However, bidders were concerned about some of the obligations imposed on the entity succeeding in the bidding process. And for instance the obligations in terms of continuity of levels of employment currently in place have been among those that raised major concerns among the entities that have approached the casino during the last months.
If the failure of the Venice casino bidding process is certainly a bad news for the Municipality of Venice, it was welcomed by companies looking at such investment. Indeed as declared by the major of Venice, private negotiations with interested parties will now start. And the general feeling is that restrictions imposed by the terms of the bidding process as well as gaming laws might be waived or at least amended to make the investment more economically viable. According to what recently reported on the press, there might be a new call for tenders started in June and closure in August where the financial terms of the deal might be considerable amended also in relation to the bank guarantee requested and the fees to be paid to the Municipality.
In a country with only 4 casino and with Venice that is a major touristic attraction with over 30 million visitors a year, the investment in the casino looks certainly interesting. The parties, financial advisors and lawyers will try to make it also financially viable in the following months. The most challenging part of the negotiation will therefore take place in the next weeks. Also investors might be start looking at also the other Italian casinos namely Sanremo, St. Vincent and Campione d’Italia that are not facing an up time and might be looking for multinational company bringing investments and a more international culture on how to run casino.
I will follow the developments of the above and as usual feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio (giulio.coraggio@gmail.com), to discuss. And follow me on my Facebook page, Twitter, Google+ and become one of my friends on LinkedIn.
