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Chile – Boldt-Peralada to appeal to Supreme Court over Chillan Casino
By Phil - 4 April 2016The Boldt-Peralada group has announced that it will appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling last month emitted by one of Chile’s highest courts.
The court upheld the recent vote of the governing Regional Council (GORE) which declared that the Boldt Peralada projected site for the casino in Chillan was too close to an educational-establishment and violated aspects of Regional Development Strategy.
Mario Rojas, lawyer for Marina del Sol called on Boldt-Peralada not to appeal and let the Chilean Gaming Control Board resolve the issue once and for all.
“The Regional Council within its powers, according to law, applied an absolutely reasonable argument and concluded that the Boldt project harmed the agreed guidelines on regional development strategy in particular on promoting healthy living in the region,” said Mr. Rojas.
However, Ricardo Abdala the lawyer representing Bold-Peralada said that the company will appeal to the Supreme Court and stressed that the Regional Council had contradicted itself as the Marina del Sol Casino located in Talcahuano in the same region was near a number of educational facilities.
“The Casino Talcahuano coexists perfectly with three educational establishments. Therefore to say that it has an effect on healthy living is not valid, and the absolute proof of that is the Talcahuano casino,” said Mr. Abdala.
The tender process for the casino in Chillan has now been delayed for over two years as both Argentine –Spanish Boldt Peralada and Chilean-Canadian company Marina del Sol battle it out over the licence. In November the Regional Council of Bio Bio rejected the proposal put forward by the Boldt-Peralada group for the third time for a casino in the capital of the province of Ñuble; one of four provinces of the Chilean region of Bío Bío.
However Boldt-Peralada appealed to the courts claiming that the decision of the Regional Council had been arbitrary and illegal as the council had no right to award points on the basis of technicalities. Instead they argued regional councillors should have confined themselves to voting on specific points revolving around the destination of the project only and how it would fit in with overall regional strategy as opposed to specific technical points when it came to each project.