Casino Lisboa is a casino
located at Parque das Nacoes (Park of the Nations) in the city
of Lisbon, Portugal. It was inaugurated and opened to the
public on April 19, 2006. he casino, at the time of opening,
had around 700 slot machines (expandable to 1,000), 22 gaming
tables, 4 bars, 3 restaurants and a theater seating 600.
Casino Lisboa is owned by Estoril-Sol, a company
majority-owned by Chinese gambling king Stanley Ho, with a
minority shareholder with 33%, Amorim. Stanley Ho also owns
the same-name Casino Lisboa in Macau. Amorim is a Portuguese
conglomerate, with two other casino concessions in Portugal
(Povoa de Varzim and Troia).
The casino took up the
former Pavilhao do Futuro (Pavilion of the Future), one of the
main attractions of the World Expo of '98, which was
extensively rebuilt for its new purpose under a project by
architect Fernando Jorge Correia. The original architects for
the Pavilion (Ana Paula Lopes dos Santos, Miguel Ferreira
Guedes de Carvalho and Rui Jorge Garcia Ramos) obtained an
injunction to halt construction work on the grounds of
copyright violation (due to changes in the facade and in the
structure of the building). A superior court overruled the
claim, but the construction work was still halted from January
to April 2005.
Early figures
The casino was built for
108.9 million Euro, including the 15-year concession fee of ˆ
30 million. In the first two months of operation, the casino
management repeatedly told the press that business was going
better than planned. Target number of daily visitors was 6,000
a day; real numbers were 10,000 in the first 30 days and 7,000
until the end of June 2006. Each visitor spent ˆ 90 in
gambling. In late June, the casino shifted its opening hours
from 3 pm - 3 am to 4 pm - 4 am on weekends (Friday and
Saturday). This schedule also applies to eves of
holidays.
