No public tender issued yet for Casinò di Venezia

There is no sign yet of a public call for tenders for the concession of the Casinò di Venezia at the Vittoriosa waterfront, after its 10-year licence is set to expire in July.

The finance ministry has a tight schedule to get the tender process moving. The last concession it issued by public tender for the Dragonara casino was in May 2009, and the agreement only finalised in June 2010 – a full 13 months later.

Even in that case, the Dragonara casino’s concessionaires had been given two extensions because the public call for tenders had not been issued.

Malta has five casino concessions, namely the Dragonara, the Casinò di Venezia, the Manoel Island casino (yet to be opened) and for a casino in Gozo, which was never opened.

The other casino concession is to Tomino Ltd for the Oracle casino, which was granted an unprecedented ‘split-licence’ to apportion its gaming machines and tables between the Oracle and the Portomaso casino.

The split-licence, granted for 10 years in 2006, was not the subject of a public call for tenders. It was established by a letter of intent from the finance ministry, then under the stewardship of John Dalli, on 9 March 2004. Dalli said he signed the letter of intent to set the policy of allocating casino licences to hotels, but added that the letter was “not a licence and only the basis for further discussions and negotiations.”

The first casino was opened in Malta in 1964 as Dragonara Casino. It was initially owned and operated by government, but after a number of management changes, it was sold to a private operator in February, 1999. The Oracle Casino in Bugibba opened its doors in September 1998, while Casino di Venezia started operating in August, 2001.

In June 2006, Portomaso launched its operations and became the fourth casino in to be awarded a ten-year license to operate in Malta.