While tourism continues to boom in Argentina and casinos are built all over the country with relatively little fanfare or controversy, the issue of casinos has proved once again to be an utterly divisive issue in the country's capital.
As previously reported in InterGaming, even though privately owned casinos are forbidden by law there in fact are two major casinos up and running in Buenos Aires. These are the so-called ‘floating casinos,’ two Mississippi-style riverboats which have been converted into casinos and are permanently moored in the Buenos Aires harbour. Both casinos are owned by Spanish company Cirsa Business Corporation, a multinational operation with its headquarters in Barcelona.
The first Cirsa floating casino to arrive in Buenos Aires was the Estrella de la Fortuna, which opened its doors back in 1999. Consisting of approximately 2,500sq.m of gaming space, divided among three decks, it boasts over 600 slots, runs blackjack and poker and attracts around two million customers a year. The second floating casino opened in March 2006 and is called Princess. It has electronic gaming and almost 1,000 slots.
Ever since the casinos opened the main problem has been the constitutional and legal framework in which they operate. The first floating casino was authorised in 1999 by ex-President Menem by decree, in which he argued that as the casino occupied national territory, i.e. the River Plate and not the city’s boundaries, it was legally entitled to run games of chance.
The city government, which opposes casino type gaming on principle, tried on several occasions to reverse the decision and in May 2005 even managed to close one of the casinos down for five hours until a judge ordered it to be reopened. This happened again twice in 2006 - the city authority arguing that by law privately run casinos are not permitted in the city limits. Even though this ruling had partial backing of the city’s Chamber of Appeals the ruling was overturned in both instances by the Superior Court of Justice.
Things seemed to improve dramatically though for the casinos in April last year when the Supreme Court ruled that it is the federal government, not the city government, that has jurisdiction over the floating casinos - in effect finally putting an end to almost eight years of almost continuous controversy. But just as it seemed that both casinos were here to stay, another serious problem arose. And this problem could be the Cirsa’s biggest challenge yet.
Since May of last year both floating casinos have been hit by major strikes. But workers are not striking over working conditions or even asking for a pay rise. Instead the strikes are the result of a very bitter power struggle now being waged between two separate and rival unions.
The problem is that around 90 per cent of the 2,000 workers on the floating casinos are part of the Gaming Workers Union, whereas 10 per cent of the staff on board, because they are actually working on a ship, are members of the National Maritime Workers Union. The Maritime Workers Union includes members of the ship’s crew and the captains of both boats because the boats are legally bound to have a crew and captain even though they don’t actually go anywhere.
In May 2007 the Maritime Workers Union called a strike because they wanted to force members of the Gaming Workers Union to join their ranks. As a result, both casinos were immediately closed, because without a crew and captain neither boat is allowed to open its doors to the public. Members of the Gaming Workers Union, meanwhile, were outraged because it meant that they couldn’t go to work.
They immediately demonstrated to the government, cut off major roads outside the racetrack and racino in Palermo and caused absolute havoc in downtown Buenos Aires. The problem was resolved several days later after prolonged negotiations when the casinos reopened under government decree.
The union issue though, it turned out, was nowhere near settled mainly because members of the Gaming Workers Union have no intention of being part of the Maritime Workers Union. This is partly due to the fact that as members of the Gaming Union they are allowed to share in the tip fund which in some cases makes up 40 per cent of their monthly salary. Things got worse last November when there was a battle between the unions in the casino itself; parts of the casinos were totally destroyed, arrests were made and several people had to go to hospital.
Meanwhile, workers from both unions marauded through the city centre and engaged in violent clashes with the police. The casinos were then closed again while the Maritime Workers Union remained adamant that if the members of the Gaming Union didn’t join them then they would ensure that both casinos would remain closed. Meanwhile, the casino laid off 60 casino workers believed to have been involved in the clashes, causing yet more strikes.
Things have settled down a little bit since then and both casinos have opened, but no permanent agreement has yet been reached and both parties are trying to resolve the strike via the Ministry of Work. Although there have been no more strikes and no more violence, the situation remains tense and tensions could erupt into violence unless the issue is settled permanently and soon. This is made all the more important given the fact that the floating casinos could well be changing hands in the near future.
According to a report in local newspaper, Clarin, the floating casinos will soon be handed over to Argentine businessman and casino operator Cristóbal López, in return for a stake in a US$150m casino and five star hotel project in the province of Rosario. According to Clarin, Lopez plans to scrap the two floating casinos and invest over $100m in building a single, more modern floating casino in the harbour.
