Gaming regulators in the microstate of Andorra have once again rejected plans to award their sole casino license to Jocs SA, leaving the future of the ill-fated casino project up in the air.
This week, Andorra’s Consell Regulador Andorrà del Joc (CRAJ) gaming regulatory body decided against awarding the sole casino license to Jocs SA, a local firm primarily involved in managing bingo halls. Jocs had pledged to build a €15m, 4,000-square-meter casino in the capital Andorra la Vella that would be managed by Austria’s Novomatic Group.
In mid-2018, Jocs controversially beat out a number of more experienced and much larger casino rivals for the casino license, but those spurned suitors swiftly launched a legal challenge , citing “serious irregularities” in the tender process. One year ago, the CRAJ withdrew Jocs’ casino concession based on “deficiencies” in Jocs’ paperwork, a decision that Jocs chose to appeal last June.
On Wednesday, the CRAJ announced its latest rejection of Jocs’ concession, acknowledging that Jocs had submitted revised paperwork aimed at correcting the problems identified in January 2019. However, the CRAJ once again concluded that there were “significant differences between the initial commitments and the final project.”
Jocs has since announced that it will appeal this latest rejection within the prescribed 30-day window, after which the CRAJ will have two months in which to respond. Should the CRAJ again tell Jocs to get lost, the parties will take their dispute to Andorran courts.
Ironically, shortly before the CRAJ issued its latest ruling, Andorran courts issued their own rejections of appeals of the Jocs concession by some of the company’s rivals, including Spanish gaming giant Cirsa. Jocs had hailed these verdicts as proof that that Jocs’ had “scrupulously” complied with the terms of the tender.
Andorra is small principality sandwiched between France and Spain with a population of only around 77k individuals. With no apparent end in sight to this casino kerfuffle, Andorra’s gamblers will have to continue venturing abroad to get their casino fix.
