Eden Leisure Group, named as the preferred bidder for a new casino licence, has filed a protest in court claiming the accusations made by Dragonara Gaming Ltd, which placed second, are frivolous and unfounded.
Eden Leisure is denying that the decision to make it preferred bidder, which followed a competitive process by the privatisation unit, is strange or incorrect.
The De Cesare family-owned group said its proposal was deemed as the best as it was the most advantageous in terms of economic growth, investment and employment.
Eden Leisure Group says its proposal was deemed as the best as it was the most advantageous in terms of economic growth, investment and employment
The group’s protest was signed by lawyer Ian Refalo.
It is holding Dragonara Gaming responsible for damages after the award of the licence was delayed on Friday after the court issued an injunction preventing the opening of a casino at the Intercontinental Hotel, St Julian’s.
Dragonara Gaming, operators of the Dragonara Casino, is claiming, on the other hand that the process was vitiated and lacked transparency. It also said the award of the licence to Eden Leisure was unmerited.
Dragonara is claiming it should have been granted the licence because it made a higher, one-off financial offer. However, the Economy Ministry countered by saying that it considered other factors before taking a decision – such as the overall value of the bid particularly in terms of tax generation.
The process for granting a new casino licence was announced by the government soon after the March 2013 general election.
An expression of interest was issued in July and a decision was due to be taken by October 2013. Eden Leisure was only named as the preferred bidder last week.
Meanwhile, the government said although only one licence was originally available, it was now considering also granting a licence to Dragonara Gaming.
The Nationalist Party yesterday issued a statement calling on the government to come clean on the process that led to the granting of the casino licence.
It said the claims made by Dragonara Gaming that the process was vitiated and flawed were serious and warranted an explanation by Economy Minister Chris Cardona, who was politically responsible.