Operator News
France – Bagnères-de-Luchon launches tender for casino with hope of 2024 opening
By Phil - 4 October 2023
The municipal council of Bagnères-de-Luchon (Haute-Garonne), officially kicked off the reopening of the casino by launching a public service delegation (DSP) to administer it.
Mayor of the town, Éric Azémar, has supported this for several months.
He said: “I ask the municipal council to approve the reopening of games in the Luchon casino, through a public service delegation, for a period of twenty years.”
After launching a sourcing procedure, which allowed him to establish contact with casino operators and investors interested in the potential of this establishment, the chief magistrate of Bagnères-de-Luchon plans to reopen the casino by the second half of 2024.
“We started this work a year and a half ago. The casino is one of the jewels of our city that we absolutely must reopen. Regarding the building itself, there is no need to demolish and rebuild. It’s just about planning.”
The municipality will now be able to draw up specifications, then publish a concession notice. These specifications, in addition to the organization of games, will also include an obligation for entertainment and catering. “There will therefore be, within the perimeter of the DSP, what we call the glass roof room, the games room, the dance hall, the director’s apartments, part of the basement, as well as two offices at the floor. This will therefore not concern the Henry Pac room, nor the theater,” said Mr Azémar.
Inaugurated on August 15, 1885, the Bagnères-de-Luchon casino closed in 2011, following the liquidation of the concessionaire. The Bagnères-de-Luchon casino closed in 2011. After several false starts, a candidate was found, who had started to operate the non-gaming activity. But before obtaining authorisation from the Ministry of the Interior, the operator had been placed in liquidation in June 2013. It was necessary to wait until June 2016 for the municipality to sign with a new delegatee for 18 years, the Société française of casinos (SFC).
As reported by Journal des Casinos, the project was ambitious, abandoning the city center building to settle in a disused wing of the Thermes Chambert, opened in 1857, a historic place requiring major renovation work. But after an unfavorable public inquiry, in April 2017, the SFC finally threw in the towel. The former mayor, Louis Ferré, recognized that it was ‘the long delays linked to the various successive obstructions which led to the abandonment of the project.’
