The Tenerife Island Council will resume the sale of the three establishments that make up Tenerife Casinos, located in Santa Cruz (Hotel Mencey), Puerto de la Cruz (Taoro), and Adeje (Playa de las Américas). The aim of the CC and PP government is the joint sale of all three, following several failed attempts since 2014, with the last one being in 2018 when they were valued at 25 million Euros.
One of the main reasons for selling the three gambling complexes is the overall goal of rationalising the public sector. Sources from the Cabildo indicate that they “do not represent a fundamental and essential public service” apart from the profitability of facilities where 150 workers carry out their daily tasks. The initiative does not have a defined time horizon except until 2027, the last year of the term.
The idea of selling the three publicly owned gambling complexes was confirmed by the President of the Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, when she presented this year’s budget project on November 3, which will exceed 1,000 million Euros for the first time. The decision to privatise them is aimed to be addressed “without undermining societies that are a reference,” as Dávila explained had happened in the previous term (2019-2023) under the socialist Pedro Martín.
Facilities of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Casino. / El Día
A Decade Ago
Ten years ago, in 2014, under the nationalist Carlos Alonso as President of the Cabildo (2013-2019), an unsuccessful attempt was made to sell the Casino de Playa de Las Américas and the other two, albeit separately. In 2016, an attempt was made to make the tender more attractive by offering them as a single lot. Thus, in November 2018, the joint sale was put out to tender for 24.9 million Euros. Bidders were required to present a tourist investment project to be carried out in one of the three municipalities where the casinos are located, with a minimum investment of 4.5 million Euros.
The product was promoted based on the location in municipalities of great tourist impact in Tenerife, which receives six and a half million visitors a year. Additionally, their infrastructures and tax advantages such as the Canary Special Zone (ZEC), the Canary Investments Reserve, and the Free Trade Zone were highlighted. However, these attractions were seemingly not sufficient as there was only one specific offer, even though initially four entities showed interest. These were the beginnings of the previous term, with the PSOE in the insular government amidst the announcement of the restructuring of public companies.
In September 2019, it was revealed that the tender for the sale of Tenerife Casinos was declared void as the interested company could not meet the conditions of the tender specifications. This was welcomed by Sí Podemos Canarias, who supported the PSOE and Ciudadanos from the outside. With CC back in the insular government, they will once again attempt to sell these three gaming rooms. However, the definitive resolution of the process opened in the previous term to clarify alleged irregularities in the management of the island’s three public casinos must be resolved first.
Judicial Scope
In 2019, the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office filed a complaint to summons Casinos de Tenerife’s manager, Hermenegildo Hernández, for alleged crimes of prevarication and misappropriation of public funds due to a series of hypothetical irregularities in the 2012, 2013, and 2014 audits.
Just a few days ago, it was learned that the judge dismissed the misappropriation case against the former manager, ruling it out due to the dismissal of eight workers. The recent ruling even states that Hernández “helped save money” for the Cabildo with the incentivized layoffs.
Assessment
The Vice President of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Lope Afonso, declined to comment on the future of the three public casinos but regarding the recent ruling, he stressed that “it is always good news that it has been resolved in a judicial setting that the investigated facts do not constitute a criminal offence; in this case, that there has been no financial harm to the companies managing the casinos.”
He added, “On the contrary, it confirms that the management under investigation generated a benefit for the entities in the context of an economic crisis that jeopardised their viability.” He further indicated that “since we became aware of the report issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, we were confident that the request for dismissal would be ratified by the investigating judge, as it has finally materialised in the order issued in the last few days.” The PP leader in the Cabildo concluded: “It should be a reason for tranquillity and satisfaction for the current members of the boards of directors, for the society’s workers, and especially for those who have personally suffered the consequences of the judicial process.”
