A Greek casino would be part of a major tourism project that would be developed on 620 hectares of the former Hellenikon Athens international airport, also the site of events at the 2004 Olympic Games. The country’s gaming committee will launch a tender for a master plan process that was approved by Greece’s top administrative court, the Greek Court of Auditors.
This is the final action that was required for the development project to go forward.
One of the earliest casino companies to show an interest in the license is Caesars Entertainment.
The planned casino will have an 8,000-square-meter gaming floor and be located in a high-rise tower. It is in the running to be the first integrated casino resort in the European Union.
It could generate more than 10,000 jobs.
Four years ago the developer Lambda Developments successfully won the bid for the project for €900 million and signed a 99-year lease with the government to transform the more than 1,500 acres into a complex of residential, hotels, nightclubs, bars, restaurants, spas, a marina and a casino on a site where facilities have been abandoned for 14 years. It will also include retail, offices, sports and conference facilities, museums, educational and research facilities.
In fact, it submitted the only compliant bid. With the infrastructure investments the consortium also agreed to put up, the entire investment is expected to exceed €8 billion.
Privatizing Greece’s tourism industry is a requirement of the country’s debtors as part of the international €7.5 billion bailout funded by the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank.
Lambda is an international consortium that includes investors from China, and the United Arab Emirates, headed by the Greek Latsis Group.
When Lambda won the tender, it insisted it wanted a casino, but the issuance of a casino license in the European Union must be decided by a separate process.
Hellenikon is a town on the coast, 8 kilometers from the capital. The airport there closed in 2001, and three years later several events of the Olympics were held there, with the runways being transformed into the sport park. A 337-berth marina was built for canoe races and the airplane hangars were turned into the fencing arena.
The Greek parliament adopted special regressive tax rates for the development from the current rate of 30 percent to as high as 20 percent and a low as 8 percent.
Currently two casinos operate in Athens, in Loutraki and Mont Parnes. In 2007 these two casinos grossed more than €400 million, but by 2017 that number had fallen to €135 million, a number that was likely driven by the country’s austerity measures, despite the fact that Greeks gamble at the highest rate of any European country.
Economists are projecting that the new casino could generate as much as €700 million annually.
Russel Kett, chairman of the tourism analysts HVS told CDC Gaming Reports, “This is a major opportunity for Athens to create a truly world-class resort. We envisage a major integrated resort, the first of its kind in Europe.”
Reports indicate that Caesars Entertainment has approached the government about building an integrated resort on the site. The company wants a license guarantee of 20 to 30 years. Other international companies are likely to join the process at some point.
