Casino Lisboa

Casino Lisboa

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 € 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 € 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.