Bozur
Amicus
Posts: 5,515
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Post by Bozur on Feb 17, 2005 17:51:02 GMT -5
Albania bets on casinos for tourist jackpot TIRANA (Reuters) - Monte Carlo... or Tirana? Albania will start taking bids today for a $10 million casino license, the first of five such licenses the formerly Stalinist state hopes will help it hit the tourist jackpot. Potential investors have one month to submit their bids for the 15-year Tirana casino license, which will cost $10 million, the Finance Ministry said in a statement yesterday. Licenses for casinos on the country’s Adriatic and Ionian coasts will follow, including one for Sarande, a hotspot which faces the Greek holiday island of Corfu. “We want this industry to support in a transparent way the development of the tourism industry and help fund public investments and social needs,” said Prime Minister Fatos Nano on Tuesday. Nano, known in Albania as a keen blackjack fan and casino-goer, was speaking to finance officials about the government’s policies for 2005. Gambling was banned under the hardline regime of Albania’s late dictator Enver Hoxha. After communism fell in 1991, sports betting and scratch lotteries spread like wildfire. Albania’s original plan was to sell the licenses for $1 million each. But MPs raised the fee ten-fold, saying the Albanian mafia would snap up a cheap $1 million license as the perfect way to launder proceeds from drug-running and white slavery. www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=51737
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Bozur
Amicus
Posts: 5,515
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Post by Bozur on Apr 13, 2005 17:59:57 GMT -5
Hyatt Regency wins Tirana casino license TIRANA (Reuters) - Greece’s Hyatt Regency has won a $10 million 15-year casino license in the Albanian capital of Tirana, the first of five gambling permits the government plans to issue, authorities said yesterday. A statement from the Finance Ministry said Hyatt Regency had won the bid, while sources close to the deal said the building and development plan proposed by Hyatt was better than that of Greek rival Club Hotel Loutraki. The casino will be built and operated by a consortium of Hyatt’s 60 percent-owned subsidiary Gaming Investment Overseas and Albanian investors. Neighboring Greece is Albania’s second-largest trading partner after Italy and a major foreign investor. Albania will also launch tenders for four casino licences along the country’s Adriatic and Ionian coasts, including one in Sarande, a tourist town across from the Greek holiday island of Corfu. www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=55109
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