A court challenge has been filed against the government over its controversial decision to grant a new casino licence to Eden Leisure Group last year.
Mr Justice Wenzu Mintoff yesterday started hearing a suit filed by the operators of the Dragonara Casino, who are asking the court to annul the whole process by which Eden Leisure was granted a concession and to re-open the whole evaluation and adjudication process.
In their challenge, the owners of the Dragonara Casino are claiming that the process conducted by the Privatisation Unit on behalf of the government was “vitiated”.
The process was transparent and correct
They are also claiming that the government has not honoured an agreement with Dragonara Casino Ltd to grant them a similar concession on the same terms at the one granted to Eden Leisure.
The controversy goes back to May 2013, two months after Labour returned to power, when an expression of interest was issued for a new casino licence.
Two bids were short-listed for the 10-year concession, one from Eden Leisure to open a casino at the Intercontinental Hotel and the other from Dragonara Limited to open a casino as San Antonio Hotel in Buġibba.
The controversy erupted as despite the bid by Dragonara Casino, valued at €4.3 million, being three times the value of the one submitted by Eden Leisure Group, which stood at €1.2 million, the government still decided to grant the concession to Eden Leisure.
The government had argued that in the long-term, particularly with regard to tax proceeds, the offer from Eden Leisure was more profitable to the government.
At the same time, in an announcement made in October 2014, the government had also said that it was prepared to give an additional concession to Dragonara so that they could still open their new casino.
However, according to a court case filed by Dr Henri’ Mizzi, the government has not honoured its latest commitment.
Dragonara Ltd said that although the agreement with the government on a new concession was reached in April 2015, the Privatisation Unit had so far refrained from doing so. The company accused the government of acting “in bad faith” by procrastinating in order not to issue the new concession.
Dr Mizzi said that in case the court could not stop the original concession process, it should still order the government to issue the new concession to Dragonara without further delay.
The suit was filed against the Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna and the Minister for the Economy Chris Cardona, apart from the chairman of the Privatisation Unit and the Eden Leisure Group.
On their part, all the entities sued are denying any wrongdoing and insisting that the process was transparent and correct.
A few weeks ago, Eden Leisure Group was ordered by the Malta Gaming Authority to remove billboards advertising the opening of the new casino this month. They were deemed to be against the law.