In this context, the Executive and the APC are in negotiations to create "the appropriate framework to manage the impact of the pandemic and restrictions on the operation of casinos this year and next", and thus guarantee the solvency of companies.
On the table, there is also another exceptional extension of the concessions of the gambling areas of Estoril (casinos in Lisbon and Estoril) and Figueira da Foz that ended on December 31, 2020.
Even on the eve of the end of the term, the Government decreed the extension of these two contracts for another year, without the need to pay compensation for this extension.
The health crisis and the consequent inability to launch international public tenders, a process that should have occurred at the beginning of last year, determined this decision.
The effects of the pandemic on the sector, which in 2020 saw profits drop by almost 50%, and this year already accounts for three and a half months of inactivity, "make the existing counterparts unenforceable," says the Ministry of Economy.
"Given the circumstances inherent to the Covid-19 disease pandemic and the adverse market conditions, there was no objectively possibility of launching tenders for new concessions," explains the Ministry, adding that the "current ones will remain, therefore, in force."
The sector expects the Government to also determine the extension of the other gambling houses, as a matter of equity vis-à-vis the other concessionaires. The contracts for the Espinho, Póvoa de Varzim and Algarve gambling zones expire in 2023 and those for the Troia and Chaves casinos expire in 2032.
But if the Estoril and Figueira da Foz concessions are to be extended once again, nothing is yet clear regarding the gambling areas of Espinho, Póvoa de Varzim and Algarve, whose exploration contracts will end in 2023. As for the casinos in Tróia and Chaves are scheduled to end on December 31, 2032.
The sector looks forward to the Government also determining its extension, for reasons of equity vis-à-vis other concessionaires and also because they were not safe from the harmful effects of the current crisis. For now, and as a compensatory measure for the losses recorded last year, all casinos were exempt from paying the minimum annual compensation to the State.
Source: GMB
