Corbis via Getty Images
Corbis via Getty Images
The government approved on Tuesday at an extraordinary and electronic meeting of the Council of Ministers a decree-law allowing “the extension of the concession for the operation of the Estoril gambling zone granted to the company Estoril Sol, SA, based on a concession agreement that expires on December 31, 2022.”
The contractor cites “reasons of public interest” for the extension of the contract, which is granted “on an exceptional basis” and “only until the conclusion of a new concession contract for the exclusive use of gambling in the Porto Gaming Zone”, Estoril, whose open tender for international advertising is in completion process and cannot be completed before 31 December due to the necessary legal formalities.
Without this extension, the casinos of Estoril and Lisbon would have been forced to close before the completion of a new tender, the Economy Ministry said in a statement, which would have a “appropriate” financial impact on the public treasury. “This measure is intended to avoid the interruption of the activities of the Estoril Gaming Zone, an interruption which, due to the legal deadlines associated with the completion of the international open tender for the exploration concession, would be inevitable and would have a corresponding financial impact on the level of government revenues, since there will no longer be collect significant amounts of special tax on gambling, such funds are critical to finance public policy in the tourism sector,” the note says.
The extension, the ministry also stresses, “also helps to ensure the stability of the work of workers assigned to this concession.”
The government indicates that the tender has not yet been completed due to “high complexity”, which is expressed in “the need to request an opinion from an external entity, as well as the need to analyze the various applications that have been submitted by competitors.” This “complexity” “determined that the execution of the relevant concession agreement can take place only in January 2023.”
In the competition for the concession of two casinos in the Lisbon area, in addition to Estoril Sol, Bidluck participated, which was excluded by the competition jury, but challenged the result.
On October 26, Estoril Sol filed a statement with CMVM informing that the tender jury “proceeded to notify the preliminary report on the analysis of submitted proposals, as a result of which it was proposed to exclude the proposal submitted by Bidluck SA. , proposal for acceptance and subsequent consideration of the proposal submitted by Estoril Sol.”
The concession period for Estoril and Lisbon casinos ended in December 2020 but has been extended due to covid-19.
Casinos get concession for two additional years due to Covid-19
Source: Observador