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According to the press, the Italian Administrative Court of Appeal (the “Consiglio di Stato“) has rejected today B Plus appeal against the decision of the court of first instance to reject the request of suspension of AAMS’ decision to refuse the renewal of B Plus’ videolottery and AWP license.
This means that the Italian market risks to lose the largest videolottery and AWP operator and it will be interesting to see whether such event will open new opportunities for the other operators and suppliers.
Indeed, B Plus holds the right of installation of almost 12,000 videolottery machines and over 80,000 AWPs in a market that represents the fastest growing gaming market in Europe leading to considerable tax entries for the State. This last aspect in particular might be crucial to foresee the future developments since if B Plus’ machines are disconnected, such circumstance might cause a major loss for the State in terms of tax entries that cannot be afforded during this economic period.
Given the above, unless unexpected developments occur, it is likely that AAMS will work on a procedure aimed at awarding B Plus’ videolottery and AWP rights to the current and to-be-awarded concessionaires through for instance an auction procedure which might be interesting both for investors (e.g. private equity funds) and operators (both machine suppliers and casino operators) since the concessionaires might need a substantial liquidity to participate to the auction.
I will follow very closely the developments and keep you posted. In the meantime, if you want to discuss about the above, feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio.
