The mayor of the Argentine port city of Necochea in Buenos Aires province is traveling to its capital city of La Plata to seek a meeting with the president of the Provincial Institute of Lotteries and Casinos (IPLyC), G3 Newswire reported March 7. The goal is to revitalize the casino based in his city.
Mayor Arturo Rojas will be seeking a slot machine permit for the existing Necochea casino from President Gonzalo Atanasof. Not having a permit has kept most private gaming companies from investing in the Necochea Casino Complex, which has been closed since 2015 due to structural problems with the building. Part of the building burned in 2020.
This announcement followed a visit by provincial Governor Axel Kicillof, who said the government intends to invest more in gaming in that area.
Rojas reached out to gaming workers to put together a unified request to bolster his meeting with Atanasof. He huddled with Paulo Cesar Nielsen from the Casino Employees Association and Fernando Hansen and Valeria López of the Casino Administration, Maintenance, and Service Union and later announced, “we are working together … to revitalize the casino.”
He added, “What we urgently need is a tender to bring back the slot machines.”
Hansen said his union supports Kicillof’s administration: “We are confident in being able to resolve the tender issue, which depends purely and exclusively on a decision by the Governor of the province, who here, in our own city, expressed his commitment for this to be carried out promptly.”
Hansen continued, “The workers, the mayor, the local legislature, and, God willing, the Governor, will work in the same direction to finally generate this bidding process that would guarantee solving our conflict, which has been going on for quite a few years, and would guarantee for Necochea the continuity of gambling in the hands of the State, the arrival of private investment in a public space, a certain real estate development, and above all, the jobs of over 60 families, which in a city like ours is not a minor issue.”
When Kicillof visited Necochea he promised to help restore the casino, mentioning his meetings with Rojas.
