Bloomberry withdraws from Cyprus casino bidding
Bloomberry Resorts Corporation confirmed it has pulled out of the bidding for a casino license in Cyprus.
Cyprus.- Philippines-based casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corporation, confirmed it withdraw of the bidding for a casino license in Cyprus, it confirmed. It has transpired in recent press reports, that Bloomberry and NagaCorp were unable to find suitable land for their planned casino resorts.
“We are confirming that we are no longer pursuing our bid to acquire a gaming licence in Cyprus,” said Leo Venezuela, Bloomberry’s director of investor relations. The reason why the casino operator had dropped out of the race has not been yet disclosed.
Back in March, the government announced the names of the three short-listed bidders for the casino resort license. Along with Bloomberry, the other two contenders were, Melco, Hard Rock Resort Cyprus Consortium, and Naga Corp Ltd. The names had already been widely reported in the media.
Reportedly Hard Rock is looking at Limassol, Bloomberry was looking at Paphos and Nagacorp at Larnaca. Then, the three casino operators were to participate in the second stage of the process, submitting complete proposals by October 5. During the first stage of the process eight candidates expressed an interest and were evaluated based on the set criteria.
Giorgos Lakkotrypis, Tourism Minister, said he would have liked to have seen a casino license much earlier. He also confirmed the deadline for proposals was on October 5.
“There is no doubt that it is an ambitious project, especially due to the model that we have chosen, which is the resort casino, unlike the rest of Europe which chose many smaller casinos. So we believe this will give us additional competitive advantages,” Lakkotrypis said. “Our intention is before the end of the year to evaluate and award the winning bid,” he said, adding that there was a possibility that the winning bidder might be allowed, if they wished, to operate a temporary casino immediately until the resort is completed.
