San Lawrenz Kempinski Hotel is the only applicant for a licence to run a casino on Gozo, Times of Malta is informed.
On the other hand, five applicants, mostly five-star hotels, will be vying to obtain the solitary Malta licence made available by the Government, to join The Dragonara in St Julian’s, Oracle in Buġibba and the Casino di Venezia in Vittoriosa, which is currently shut after running into financial difficulties.
Following an expression of interest issued by the Government’s Privatisation Unit last May, a spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretariat for Competitiveness and Economic Growth confirmed six applications were received, one for Gozo and five for Malta.
However, he declined to name the companies involved, citing ongoing negotiations and commercial reasons.
“All applicants have been invited to submit a detailed proposal in relation to their submission,” the spokesman said.
“This will be followed by the adjudication process and negotiations with the aim of concluding with the successful candidates by the end of October.”
Apart from Gozo’s Kempinski, this newspaper is informed the other applicants for the Maltese licence are San Antonio Hotel in Qawra, Intercontinental in Paceville, Seabank Hotel in Mellieħa, Corinthia San George in St Julian’s and Montekristo Estate in Luqa.
Sources close to the Privatisation Unit said this was not the Kempinski’s first bid to obtain a casino licence as the Gozo hotel tried this unsuccessfully a few years ago. In 2004, then finance minister John Dalli had issued a letter of intent to the Kem-pinski’s owners.
However, although the five-star resort already had the building in place and conducted various negotiations, it had not managed to find an international gaming partner to join it in this risky venture.
Sources close to the industry told Times of Malta that although a casino licence may sound like it would attract new business to Gozo, “it will be very difficult to find an international player to join, due to the small size of the island and the low number of wealthy foreign clients it attracts”.
“Casinos are a very tough business and it will once again be difficult for Gozo to have an up and running casino. This is a 24-hour, year-round operation and many in the industry have doubts whether such an operation will be financially viable.
“Also the trend has now changed from onshore to online casinos,” the sources said.
With regard to Malta, the industry looks more viable, although there are issues.
“It’s true that Malta is competing well, especially with southern Italy where no casinos exist. But oversaturation might be an issue with a fourth licence on a tiny island,” the sources said.