Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment (MGE) has been selected to start working on the project “Hellinikon.” Hellinikon is supposed to be the first true casino resort in Greece, aiming to attract people from all over the world. The hope is also for Hellikon to provide the first casino resort in Europe, which surprisingly doesn’t have a resort like those in Vegas or Macau.
Although the progress towards starting the building process has been terribly slow, signs of progress have been made. MGE finally managed to submit a financial bid for the gaming license so the company could start working on the project.
Building Process Is One Step Away
The Hellenic Gaming Commission (HGC) announced on Wednesday that GEK Terna, a construction company from Greece, joined forces with MGE. The two companies paired to submit a bit of €150 million for a single casino license, after which they would be able to start working on the €8-billion project named Hellinikon. The resort is supposed to be built in the place of the old airport in Athens.
The offered amount for the license was five times larger than the minimum of €30 million that the HGC decided on for this process. That amount was somewhat strange, given that MGE was the only company to bid for the license. Their only competitor for a license, Hard Rock International, was disqualified from the licensure race due to an alleged technical issue with paperwork. HRI still protests about this issue but without too much success.
Either way, the offer for the license paved the way for negotiating between the Hellenic Gaming Commission and MGE. The company is supposed to get a 30-year-long license for operating in Greece.
Clearing the Final Hurdles
After the two sides strike a deal, it will have to be approved by the Court of Auditors; then, the deal will have to be ratified by parliament. All of that is supposed to happen by the end of 2020. After all these processes are completed, MGE and GEK Terna will finally be able to start construction on building the most prominent casino resort in Europe.
Once the building process starts, the Greek government, which has been dealing with many budget issues, will finally be able to receive €300 million in installments from Lamda Development, who oversees the non-gaming aspects that will be part of the resort.
The casino complex that will be part of the resort will be named “Inspire Athens,” and the MGE consortium managed to estimate the cost of building it at about €1 billion. A well-renowned architecture company, Steelman Partners, made the principal design for the casino. Once it is completed, it will have a total of 120 gaming tables as 1,200 slots. The resort will also feature a conference center, a luxurious hotel, an infinity pool, and many other amenities that the travelers will be able to visit.
The entire process has been slow, but it seems that we finally see some progress. At the moment, it’s difficult to predict the year when the resort will be completed, as the Greek government proved somewhat inefficient.
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