Bidders hoping to develop a multibillion-dollar integrated casino resort at a onetime Athens airport have a few more weeks to tweak their proposals.
The deadline for applications for the €1billion (US$1.26 billion) complex at the former Hellinikon International Airport has been extended from April 22 to May 31.
The IR is part of a larger €8 billion (US$9.1 billion) development on the Athenian Riviera. It will span more than 634,000 square meters (6.8 million square feet), according to Lamda Development, a local company chosen to build the complex.
The winning operator will get a 30-year license for a casino with 500 slots and 100 gaming tables.
The project has already been beset by delays; bids for the project were first called for way back in 2011, a decade after the airport closed. So far, three U.S.-based global operators are said to be in the running for the airport license: Hard Rock International, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment.
At the Delphi Economic Forum earlier this month, Mohegan Gaming CEO Mario Kontomerkos said Athens “has the chance to become the center of the integrated resort casino world, because with a two-hour flight it is connected to 19 countries with 6 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the global GDP.”
In other local gaming news, the Greek VLT sector is in question after the Council of the State ruled that the introduction of VLTs in 2016 was not signed by the president.
That year, state-owned operator OPAP got the OK to roll out 35,000 VLTs. The country’s casinos say VLTs in local neighborhoods are keeping people from patronizing their own operations. Greeks spent more than €2 billion (US$2.25 billion) on gambling last thanks in part to a 39 percent increase in online gaming and 6.3 percent growth in OPAP operations. Casino gaming dropped 2.5 percent from 2017.
