Paraguayan government does not approve new casinos

Games of Chance Commission (Conajzar), whose president is lawyer Cristhian Vera, had granted, in December 2007, the license for the casino installation in Cordillera and Misiones.

After three tender process declared void, the commission had granted the company Azar Internacional SA the operation of a casino in Cordillera and Casinos Paraguayos SA, in Misiones. Both foreign companies belong to the same group, leaded by Ernesto Antonio Seoane.

The legal representative of the firm Azar Internacional SA, Carlos Ramírez, said he does not know why the government does not approve the tender performed by Conajzar. He said that both companies, licensed to operate casinos for ten years, cannot make any investment without having the respective decrees.

Ramírez could not say in which cities of Cordillera and Misiones will the casinos be located, because they have not finished the technical studies of feasibility yet. However, he said that casinos must be located in more populated cities and in a strategic zone, from a commercial point of view. He assured that he does not know why the government has not approved the licenses, which are essential for the firms to start their investment programs.

Azar Internacional SA and Casinos Paraguayos SA have been favored last year by Conajzar with resolutions of expansion of the operating contracts of casinos in Ciudad del Este and Encarnación, respectively.

These new concessions would be illegal, because Law 1.016/97, of games of chance, does not plan extension in contracts, but the commission ratifies that it did not infringe this norm.

Conajzar is legally protected in a legal opinion in favor of the extensions, issued both by the Government Watchdog Office, such as the General Attorney General Office.