CR83-p08-Europe CE&CIS 1:SJC-Casino Review 23/8/09 01:44 Page 1
internationalcasinoreview
Slot players can smoke
again in Bavaria
An amendment to the Bavarian smoking
law has allowed slot players in the nine
casinos there to light up whilst playing
from 1 August. The state-owned operator
has installed high-tech climate control
News
equipment and the latest air cleansing
technology. Erwin Horak, president of the
State Lottery Administration (pictured),
said: “The easing of the ban means
Bavarian Casinos are now able to win
back some of their players.”
EUROPE CENTRAL, EAST & CIS
CAI exits minority
Bavarian
Casinos
and unions
Swiss holdings
come to
terms
Casinos Austria’s
the ideal time for us to sell.” friendlyrelations
Swiss subsidiary is
For its part, Swiss Casinos GERMANY
Holding is promoting its now
stepping out of three
strengthened position as the The state-owned operator
casinos in which it only local company involved Bavarian Casinos has
does not hold the
in five of the 19 casinos in the signed new collective
controlling interest in
country. Last year the five bargaining agreements
casinos together generated with ver.di, the trade
order to concentrate gross gaming revenues of union that represents
on those where it
SF174.6m (E114.1m), of which many casino workers.
can have some
more than 45 per cent was After four rounds of
handed over to the social fund negotiations that included
influence. The
and the cantons. representatives from the
company remains The move by Casinos Finance Ministry and the
deeply involved in
Austria comes at a time when state lottery administra-
four other venues,
the company has been re- tion, the new deal, which
examining its portfolio: earlier runs to the end of 2010,
however. this year it announced plans includes assurances on
to restructure its share of the job security, pensions and
separateinterests ownership of Club Hotel the stabilisation of salaries
SWITZERLAND Casino Loutraki, with respect in return for changes in
to the Greek venue, the new working practices.
Casinos Austria (Swiss) is to Casino Beograd and Grand Front line casino workers
sell its minority shares in three Casino Zürichsee at Pfäffikon is now wholly owned by Swiss Casinos Holding Casino Brussels. Last year it will also benefit from a 2.4
casinos in Switzerland to its sold its interests in Gold Reef per cent salary increase,
partner there, Swiss Casinos Casinos in South Africa, whereas back office and
Holding, for an as yet undis- Pfäffikon and CSA Casino Casinos Austria remains in either at these casinos or at the making a substantial return administration workers will
closed amount. Schaffhausen. Once the deal partnership with Swiss venues in Lugano or Lucerne, on its investment. see a 2.9 per cent increase.
The deal, which is sched- has gone through, Swiss Casinos Holding in two further in which the company has con- A company spokesman Faced with plummeting
uled to be completed by the Casinos Holding will own 100 venues, the Grand Casino trolling interests. said: “In these challenging revenues Bavarian
end of September, still has to per cent of Zürichsee, 99 per Kursaal Bern and Casino St Casinos Austria (Swiss) times, we are taking a look at Casinos began a profound
be approved by the Federal cent of Schaffhausen and 97 Moritz. In Bern, the firms CEO, Hubertus Thonhauser, the portfolio and at the range restructuring programme
Casino Commission but it is per cent of St Gallen. At the operate a 50-50 joint venture, commented: “From the outset of options available. And we in March starting with the
unlikely to be halted. latter, the only other share- whereas at the season St Moritz our interests in the gaming are concentrating on opera- casinos in Bad Steben and
The three venues in ques- holder, the St Gallen- venue, Casinos Austria holds operations in St Gallen, Pfäf- tions where we can have an Bad Kötzting: it included a
tion are the A-licensed Grand Bodensee Tourist Board, will the majority 68.5 per cent fikon and Schaffhausen were influence and use our skills. It reduction in the number of
Casino St Gallen and the B- increase its holding to almost holding. There is no change in purely financial. From a strate- also helps us to streamline our staff but without compul-
licensed Casino Zürichsee in three percent. ownership arrangements gic point of view, this is now internal operations.” sory redundancies.
Thuringian casino takings
well below expectations
criticalmass struggled to cope with the impact inflamed the socialist opposition
GERMANY of the smoking ban, the poor since they were agreed five years
economy and competition from ago. Under the contract, lease pay-
The finance ministry of the central both local gaming arcades and the ments will only become due once a
German state of Thuringia has internet. certain level of gross gaming rev-
announced that it will receive just However, the opposition SPD in enues has been achieved. SPD rep-
E158,000 in tax from Casino Erfurt the state has also sharply criticised resentatives have called this a
from operations in the first six the government for effectively sub- covert subsidy of the operator, a
months of the year; receipts of E1m sidising the casino. Business division of the NRW Bank, itself a
are expected for the whole year, a spokesman Hartmut Schubert said: state-owned institution.
significant reduction in expecta- “[This announcement] shows that According to the Thuringian
tions following previous years. In the revenues from the casino are Finance Minister Birgit Diezel,
Birgit Diezel, 2007, around E2.4m was handed getting less and less every year. around E1.4m has been used in
Thuringia’s
over to the state. Here is a luxury venue that has rent support and investment into
Finance
The casino, located in the Hotel been heavily promoted and which the casino.
Minister, is
facing questions
am Dom, is operated by WestSpiel, is not even profitable. The state has For several years a committee of
about state
which runs eight venues across taken over the rental costs of the enquiry has been looking into
subsidy of
Germany, including the country’s casino in a luxury city centre hotel.” whether the licensing contract
Casino Erfurt. most successful, Casino Duisburg. The contract between the state includes illegal subsidies. It is due
In Erfurt, however, the casino has government and the operator has to publish its report shortly.
8 September 2009 • europecentraleast&cisnews
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64