Operator News
Latvia – Olympic loses out in battle to save Pragas Street casino
By Phil - 30 May 2018
Baltic casino operator Olympic Entertainment Group (OEG) has lost its decision with the District Administrative Court in Riga to keep the Olympic casino at Pragas Street open with the court ruling in favour of the Riga City Council.
According to the city council’s decision, the casino has to close in October 2022. Oympic will appeal the decision.
Madis Jääger, CEO of Olympic Entertainment Group, said: “Further to OEG’s announcements that OEG filed an action with a court regarding the decisions of cancellation of a permit to organise gambling activities in respectively two and five casinos located in Riga, OEG announces that it has received the decision of the District Administrative Court in Riga regarding one of the casinos located in Riga (Pragas street 1). The court ruled in favour of Riga City Council. According to the Riga City Council decision the casino has to be closed in October 2022. OEG will appeal the decision to higher level court.”
Olympic’s Latvian subsidiary, Olympic Casino Latvia SIA, has received in total seven decisions made by the Riga council to revoke casino licences in Riga with a transition period of five years, and has filed actions with the courts regarding the decisions.
The council has said that two of these casinos must be closed by September 2022 and five by November 2022.
In the autumn of 2022, up to 42 casinos are to be closed in Riga’s historic center, of which seven are owned by Olympic
Olympic’s flagship casino in Riga, Olympic Voodoo Casino, will not be affected by the closures.
Olympic operates more than 50 casinos in Latvia. The Latvian market fell by 1.5 per cent fro the group in the first quarter of 2018, generating GGR of €16.3m.
At the end of March 2018, there were 53 Olympic casinos with 1,457 slot machines, eight electronic roulette terminals, 24 gaming tables and 9 poker tournament tables operating in Latvia. As at March 31 2018 Latvian operations employed 922 people.
Overall the group’s revenue before gaming taxes for Q1 2018 showed modest growth amounting to €52.4m, up 1.8 per cent with Estonia the main driver up 18.3 per cent.
