EUROPE
December 1, 2010
BLACK SEA RESORT NAMED AS RUSSIA’S NEWEST CASINO ZONE
Rostov
will be scratched from Russia’s list of approved casino zones, replaced by an
area near the popular Black Sea resort city of Anapa.
The Federation Council, the upper house of the parliament,
approved the relocation, endorsing a bill passed by the lower house, the State
Duma, this fall.
The new zone, called “Golden Sands,” is
already drawing interest from investors, according to the English-language
Moscow Times.
The move was initiated by Krasnodar Governor
Alexander Tkachyov, who proposed to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev the idea
of moving the gambling zone to Anapa, according to the Times. The Azov City
location in Rostov attracts neither players nor investors, Tkachyov
said.
In relocating the zone, the lawmakers behind
the legislation agreed that Rostov — one of the four outlying zones created
when casinos were officially exiled from Russia’s big cities a few years ago —
was not commercially viable, and there has been little movement there toward
creating necessary infrastructure.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s office chimed in that the reasons
for moving the zone were economic.
The Golden Sands site was unveiled at an investment forum in Sochi
in September. It covers 1,000 hectares and is close to air and rail transport.
Upwards of US$14 billion is being sought to transform the area with beaches,
hotels, golf courses, marinas and entertainment venues.
MORE GERMAN STATES BACK MARKET REFORM
Another blow was
struck at the public sector monopolies that have dominated Germany’s betting
markets and which appear to be unraveling after years of economic and legal
assaults.
In the latest move, the leaders of the German states of Saxony,
Hesse, Bavaria and Hamburg have stated that their jurisdictions plan to join
the state of Schleswig-Holstein in modifying the monopoly model for sports
betting. This was communicated at a recent annual meeting of the heads of the
states, who said they would be exiting the country’s Inter-State Gaming Treaty,
which expires at the end of 2011.
Germany’s courts, including those at the highest level, continue
to work through how to apply a series of rulings by the European Court of
Justice that attempt to set proportional guidelines to determine when state
monopolies have crossed the line into anti-competitive practices in violation
of European Community free trade guarantees.
IPO A BIG SUCCESS FOR CZECH OPERATOR
Czech
betting and gambling operator Fortuna Entertainment Group raised €78.3
million in the country’s first IPO since May 2008.
The offering, which went off on the Prague Stock Exchange at €4.30 a share, was
twice oversubscribed, according to a report on the GamingIntelligence Web site.
Fortuna sold 18.2 million shares, including 2 million newly issued shares,
representing 35 percent of the company.
The offering values
Fortuna at €223.6 million in terms of market capitalization.
Fortuna said it intends to use proceeds of the sale to launch a
lottery project in the Czech Republic through a partnership with Greece’s
Intralot, with any remaining proceeds to be used to increase the cash resources
of the company.
TIPPERARY COUNCIL OKs CASINO PLANS
A €460 million,
900-acre entertainment complex in Tipperary that will include a casino has
received planning permission from the local Council.
What is still missing in Ireland is legislation approving casinos,
but a gambling venue is featured in the Tipperary development as currently
planned. Those plans also call for the site to include a turf and all-weather
racecourse, a greyhound track, a 500-room hotel, a golf course and an
equestrian center among its attractions.
The location is in Twomileborris, close to Thurles and near the
main roadway from Dublin to Cork.
It is expected to take three years to
complete, according to a report in the Irish Examiner, and barring further
objections, infrastructure work could begin early in 2011.
Supporters say the construction will create up to 1,000 jobs, with
2,000 permanent jobs generated once the complex is open.
Its principal backer is Richard Quirke, a former Tipperary
policeman who runs an amusement and gaming arcade in Dublin.
UK’s GALA CORAL NAMES NEW CEO
Gala Coral has
tapped a couple of Britain’s retail giants to find a new chief executive and
non-executive chairman.
The casino, bingo and betting giant,
struggling under the large debt load left after a leveraged buyout earlier in
the decade, hired former Marks & Spencer Director Carl Leaver as CEO,
replacing Neil Goulden, who’d been filling the role temporarily after the
resignation of Dominic Harrison following completion of a restructuring.
Goulden is leaving the board of directors after nearly 10 years with the
company.
Leaver worked for pub giant Whitbread and was CEO of De Vere Group
before joining clothing and grocery chain Marks & Spencer, where he last
held the position of director of international, home and
direct.
Rob Templeman, CEO of department store chain Debenhams, was named
non-executive chairman.
ROAD TO MOROCCO PROVING LUCRATIVE
The online world is
abuzz over the emergence of Morocco as a new hotspot in the world of
poker.
The relatively liberal gambling laws that prevail in the North
African kingdom have spurred a steady increase in the number of poker
tournaments hosted in the country, primarily in the tourist hub of Marrakech.
The recent Marrakech Poker Open at the Es Saadi Casino reportedly
drew pros from across Europe and Asia and was won by an amateur French player.
The Marrakech Poker Cup, sporting a heady US$100,000 entry fee, similarly
attracted players from around the world. The top prize of $247,000 was taken
home by Briton James Bord, who also won the Main Event of the Poker Stars World
Series of Poker Europe tournament earlier this year.
The World Poker Tour also was scheduled to return to Morocco. Its
debut WPT Marrakech drew 400 players last year who vied for a total prize pool
of more than €1.8 million, which made it the largest poker tournament ever held
in Africa. It was won by a Morocco-based Frenchman, Christophe Savary, who
netted €377,262.
POLAND GETS TOUGH IN BATTLE AGAINST UNLICENSED SITES
The Polish
government is moving ahead with plans to crack down on unlicensed Internet
betting sites by attempting to prevent its citizens from betting
online.
The Finance Ministry was scheduled to introduce legislation this
month making it illegal to deposit money with any unlicensed Polish-language
online betting site and to apply Polish law to all online gambling sites with
Polish content wherever they are located in the world.
The crackdown — part of an effort to protect
sanctioned sites, which are legal but limited in terms of what they offer
compared with more sophisticated sites coming from outside
the country — was launched following the resignation of the sports minister
last year over ties to a gambling tax deal.
Initially, the plan was to ask ISPs to block access to a large
number of sites, but that was dropped after a public outcry. But a ban on all
forms of advertising was imposed, and the Polish Football Association was
forced to drop a sponsorship deal with Unibet.
Poland’s online market is estimated to be worth more than 4
billion zloty (US$1.3 billion) per year.
NOVOMATIC OPENS NEW HQ IN ROMANIA
Slots and operations giant Novomatic
Group has opened a new headquarters in Romania’s capital city of
Bucharest.
Romania is a big market for Novomatic, which has invested heavily
in the country and operates more than 70 gaming venues there, and last month’s
ribbon-cutting was attended by CEO Franz Wohlfahrt.
The €20 million facility, located on 12,000 square meters near the
capital’s Otopeni Airport, houses 5,000 square meters of administrative offices
and warehouse space.
Work began on the facility in 2008 and was completed in May.
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