Many state officers were present while the law was approved, and were indignant due to the government decision to “totally privatize” the casino.
The tender process is expected to be executed in the following days and the refurbishment will start in the second half of 2008. The idea is that, for 2010, the Hotel Casino is opened to high-roller bettors from abroad.
The initiative was just approved with votes from the official party, because the National Party (Partido Nacional) thinks that the process is not transparent, according to Legislator Jorge Gandini.
He said that he has serious doubts on the process because legislators did not have enough tome to analize the proposals and because, in his view, there are different accusations on irregularities on this tender process.
Gandini reminded that this year, IMM declared void nine offers to operate the casino, but did not bring legislators the reasons of that decision under the argument that they are secret.