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Argentina – Two casinos to close in Mendoza having failed new policy

By - 25 April 2017

The Institute of Gaming and Casinos, (IPJyC) of the province of Mendoza has decided not to renew the licences of two casinos because they no longer fit into government policy.

The closure of the casinos in the city of Tunuyán and in the city of Tupungato both of which are located in the winemaking region of Valle de Uco a region in the southwest of Mendoza, are scheduled to take place this week. The Indendant of Tunuyán Martín Aveiro opposed the move and informed the IPJyC that the closures would lead to job losses and would negatively affect tourism in the area. He also requested that they should be moved rather than closed down.

However the measures are part of a larger policy currently being pushed forward by the Governor of the province of Mendoza Alfredo Cornejo. In January Cornejo closed the Casino de Mendoza La Consulta, located in the town of La Consulta. It was the third casino to be closed in the province after both the casino in the district of Uspallata and the casino in the district of Eugenio Bustos were also forced to close in 2016 for failing to attract tourists.

General Manager of the Institute of Games and Casinos, Andrés Lombardi said that the casinos in the valley had had a negative impact on the local economy. “Casinos did a lot of damage to the economies and consumption in these cities of Mendoza. They only had slot machines and the people who attended them were made up of more than 85 per cent of visitors to the area and almost no tourists,” he said.
The four gaming rooms located in the Valle de Uco (the casinos in Eugenio Bustos, La Consulta, and now Tunuyán and Tupungato) had annual revenues of $100m pesos. “We do want that money to end up in a casino, but in the economy, in the consumption of the inhabitants, in commerce and in production for the Valley de Uco,” Lombardi said.

Mr Lombardi said that the casinos in the city of San Rafael, the licence for which expires in two years time, would also not be renovated. The licences for the casinos located in the cities of San Martín, Rivadavia, General Alvear, Malargüe and in Godoy Cruz all expire in 2020 and 2021 and it will be up to the next government to decide if those licences will be renovated he said.

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