SPD questions “suspicious” WestSpiel accounts

Germany’s Social Democratic Party has alleged “suspicious tricks” in Westspiel’s accounts ahead of privatisation move.

Germany.- The German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen will hold a special session of parliament tomorrow (Friday) to look into allegations from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) that “suspicious balance sheet tricks” were used to allow the privatisation of state-owned WestSpiel casinos.

The SPD has said it wants to ask several urgent questions to the Parliament’s Budget and Finance Committee, claiming that the ruling Christian Democratic Union and Free Democratic Party had decided to privatise WestSpiel “at any cost”. 

The party claims its research suggests the numbers for the group’s six casinos have been doctored to make the group appear more attractive to a bidder.

WestSpiel is currently owned by state bank NRW. A move to privatise its casinos was finally being agreed last month under legislation that would allow the buyer to build two more venues.

SPD said: “We have a number of questions in which the state government urgently needs to clarify matters regarding WestSpiel. The special meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee provides an opportunity to do this.”