It’s down to two bidders for a casino concession at the onetime Hellenikon International Airport site near Athens, Greece. The last ones standing are both U.S.-based tribal gaming operators.
Hard Rock International, owned by the Seminole tribe of Florida, and Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment (MG&E), owned by the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut, are the final competitors for a license. The winner will have the right to build and operate a casino property at the airport, which closed in 2001.
According to the Athens National Herald, Mohegan Gaming is working with Greek industrial conglomerate GEK Terna to be part of the larger €8 billion (US$8.93 billion) entertainment complex.
In August, Hard Rock CEO Jim Allen said the company will submit a $1.1 billion bid. And MG&E Chief Executive Mario Kontomerkos recently told reporters at the Thessaloniki International Fair his company, too, is still preparing to bid by the deadline, which was pushed back from September 30 to October 4.
The Herald reported that other bidders—a field that once included Caesars Entertainment and Genting—were “scared off by stalling under former ruling Radical Left Syriza,” which was defeated at the polls in July. Politically motivated delays may not have been behind Caesars’s withdrawal; the Vegas-based operator withdrew from license bidding in Japan to concentrate on its domestic affairs, including its merger with Eldorado Resorts, and the same reason almost certainly applied to Greece. Genting is said to still be interested, but not committed.
The larger entertainment complex will include a hotel, a conference center, restaurants and other entertainment areas, the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency said.
Allen said the Hard Rock proposal would create 3,000 new jobs in construction and 1,600 in the facilities and would be completed in 20 months to 26 months.
The Hellenic Gaming Commission (HGC) has mandated that the integrated resort have at least 500 slot machines and a minimum of 100 table games. The selected operator will receive a 30-year gaming license, granting it near-monopoly status in the Athens area, reported Casino.org.
