After being forced to temporarily close in March due to a dispute over gaming taxes, the Club Hotel Casino Loutraki is now reportedly facing the real prospect of being briefly shuttered for allegedly failing to pay its employees in a timely manner.
According to a Sunday report from I Kathimerini, Greek gaming laws stipulate that casinos must pay their employees within 30 days or risk being closed for a few months. The local newspaper explained that these regulations additionally specify that gambling venues can be permanently shuttered if such a penalty is instituted on a trio of succeeding occasions.
I Kathimerini reported that some Club Hotel Casino Loutraki employees are currently owed around 70 days’ wages, which prompted the Labor Inspection Squad to launch an investigation that involved visits to the seaside venue located around 50 miles west of Athens. It detailed that the results of this inquiry have now been sent to the Hellenic Gaming Commission with the regulator set to make a final ruling on the matter at its next meeting.
However, I Kathimerini reported that Greek gaming officials are likely to be lenient as any shutdown of the Club Hotel Casino Loutraki could lead to permanent job losses. The newspaper explained that a trio of other local gambling venues encompassing the Casino Syros, the Rio Porto Hotel and Casino and the Casino Corfu are moreover purportedly overdue in paying their employees but that the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is keen on remaining attractive to foreign operators in advance of launching the licensing process for the envisioned casino in the southern Athens suburb of Elliniko.