In Argentina, the provincial governor of Buenos Aires, María Eugenia Vidal, recently ordered a casino in Valeria del Mar to close on December 31. Two other casinos in Necochea and Mar de Ajó will close in the next few months and a planned bingo parlor in Temperley will not open. Vidal justified the casino closures by noting gaming did not boost tourism.
In her first two years in office, Vidal said her administration kept a strict watch over gambling. “No more machines were added. We did not open a single lottery agency. Now will follow a state in which we will further restrict the game. The idea that restricting the legal game favors the illegal is false. You have to restrict the legal game and combat the illegal,” she stated.
Buenos Aires’ strict anti-gambling position also includes prosecuting operators of unauthorized online gambling sites and forcing other provincial online gambling sites to geo-block Buenos Aires punters.
Before the recent closures, Buenos Aires had 12 casinos and 46 bingo halls. Two of the casinos’ licenses will expire in 2019 and 2021. As a result, seven casinos will be regulated. Interested parties will have to bid for the right to operate a province-wide maximum of 3,860 slot machines at these seven casinos. Vidal said 45 percent of an applicant’s score from the bid will be based on how large a cut of revenue the potential operator will share with the province.
Buenos Aires casinos are all government-owned, but the gaming machines are operated by private companies, which currently keep 40 percent of the profits. Currently the machines in the seven casinos are all operated by Boldt SA Spanish operator Codere, which operates many of Argentina’s bingo halls. The company is expected to aggressively compete to win the casino concession.
The province also plans to initiate a new licensing system to divide the seven casinos into “three baskets” of two or three casinos each, combining the most and least profitable venues. The new casino concessions will be for 20 years, easing fears of closures.
