Casinos Austria

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Casinos Austria AG

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1934
Seat Vienna , AustriaAustriaAustria 
management
  • Martin Skopek
    (Board Director)
Number of employees 1890 (2017)
sales 330 million euros (2017)
Branch Gambling
Website www.casinos.at

The Casinos Austria AG (CASAG) operates in Austria 12 casinos and has international investments in gambling establishments . The group companies of the stock corporation operate worldwide. The seat is in Vienna , in the 3rd district at Rennweg 44.

The enterprise

The casinos in the January 3, 1934 Laxenburg constituted , on 5 January 1934 recorded Austrian casino A.G. were in 1967 by the Austrian casinos AG (renamed in 1985 to Casinos Austria AG ) taken. The company is one of the largest Austrian taxpayers.

Grand Casino Baden in Baden near Vienna
Casino Salzburg
Casino Velden am Wörthersee
Casino Innsbruck
Casino Seefeld

The Casinos Austria Group, which operates worldwide, currently includes 12 casinos in Austria and, through its subsidiary Casinos Austria International (CAI), 31 gaming operations in 13 countries (24 land casinos, 4 ship casinos and one VLT location). In 2017, net gaming revenues of 330.14 million euros were achieved in Austria. The group employs 1,890 people in Austria and 1,623 outside of Austria.

Following the amendment to the Austrian Gaming Act 2010 (GSpG), the licenses for the 12 existing Austrian casinos were reissued. The award was made in two packages - once 6 casinos in Austrian provincial capitals ("city package"), once 6 casinos in rural tourist regions ("land package"). Casinos Austria was awarded the city package in December 2012 and the land package in September 2013, allowing it to operate the existing houses for a further 15 years. In the course of the new licensing, it was announced that Casino Bad Gastein would be closed in 2016 and that a location in Zell am See would be opened instead. The Casino Bad Gastein, which opened in 1937, was closed in 2015.

In 2017, 2.85 million visitors came to Austrian casinos (after 3.01 million in 2016). 5.1 million visitors were counted in the houses of CAI (2016: 4.8 million). Casinos Austria International went through a phase of consolidation that lasted several years, during which the worldwide casino locations were reduced from 74 casinos in 2007 to 31 at last. In 2013 CAI sold its subsidiaries in Romania and Chile as well as a stake in Italian video lottery terminals. The license was withdrawn from the Argentine subsidiary Entretenimientos y Juegos de Azar SA (ENJASA). A lawsuit is pending against this license withdrawal, but it is final until the outcome of the nullity action, and gaming in the Argentine province of Salta was discontinued on November 19, 2013.

The gaming behavior of the guests has changed significantly in recent years. As everywhere in the European gaming industry, the importance of the live game (i.e. at gaming tables with a croupier ) is declining, while sales of slot machines and the Internet are increasing. Casinos Austria reacted to this development with a double strategy. On the one hand, the marketing strategy enhances the experience value of visiting the casino with dinner menus and events. On the other hand, Casinos Austria and Österreichische Lotterien also offer online games on the Internet through their joint subsidiary win2day . win2day is the only online gaming portal licensed in Austria and, with sales of 1.613 billion euros in 2017 (1.536 billion in 2016), is one of the Group's growth segments.

According to § 25 GSpG, Casinos Austria is obliged to strict player protection, which among other things stipulates that casinos may only be entered by people over the age of 18 who have to identify themselves and whose gaming behavior has to be observed. Should a guest gamble beyond his or her financial circumstances or if there is a suspicion of risk of gambling addiction, the casino is obliged to issue a ban. Furthermore, every guest can also initiate voluntary self-locks. As a result of these strict requirements, there were repeated claims for damages in previous years, some of which led to high payments by Casinos Austria to those affected. Due to an amendment to the Gambling Act (GSpG) in August 2005, claims for damages were limited to the subsistence level and the limitation period was reduced to half a year.

Shareholder structure

The owners of the shares of the unlisted company in June 2020 were:

Since January 15, 2018, the Czech Sazka Group has been the largest shareholder in Casinos Austria AG with a total of 34 percent of the shares. At an extraordinary general meeting , the shareholders approved a purchase of the 22.7 percent that came from Leipnik-Lundenburger and Uniqa . Before that, the Sazka Group held an eleven percent stake in CASAG. According to the Addendum research platform , the Sazka Group has also signed preliminary contracts with Novomatic and the Schelhammer & Schattera bank for a takeover of around 61 percent of the shares. Wallner sold his shares to Peter Goldscheider's Epic consortium. In June 2020 Novomatic sold its 17.19% stake in Sazka.

Supervisory board

Walter Rothensteiner, General Director of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG and Advocate General of the Austrian Raiffeisen Association, chairs the Supervisory Board. Vice-President is General Director Mag. Gerhard Starsich of Münze Österreich AG. Leo Wallner has not been a member of the Supervisory Board since the end of June 2011. Wallner had been Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board for four years since May 2007, after leading the company as General Manager for 39 years.

General Directors

Group companies

  • Casinos Austria AG - parent company with 12 Austrian casinos and shareholders in numerous foreign holdings.
  • Casinos Austria International - company for the planning, construction and operation of casinos. Currently (2016) 33 locations.
  • Österreichische Lotterien Ges.mbH : Lotto, Joker, EuroMillionen, Brieflos, number lottery, Austrian class lottery etc. (at 68%)
  • Entertainment Glücks- und Unterhaltungsspiel GmbH (50% and Österreichische Lotterien GmbH 50%)
    • Gambling and entertainment company mbH : WINWIN
    • win2day development and operating company mbH : win2day .at
    • Österreichische Sportwetten Ges.mbH : tipp3 (56%)
  • Casinos Austria Gastronomie Betriebs Ges.mbH- CAGAST - Gastronomy.
  • Casinos Austria Security Technology- CAST - Security Technology .
  • Congress Casino Baden Betriebsges.mbH - Casino Baden with a congress center.
  • ÖLG Holding GmbH - holding company

Casinos

Casino Baden

The casino in Baden was built as a new health resort between 1884 and 1886 according to plans by the architects Eugen Fassbender and Maximilian Katscher . The building was built in the neo-renaissance style instead of the old Theresienbad in the spa gardens. After several renovations, it was reopened in 1995 as the largest casino in Europe, including a congress and event center. The casino is regularly used for cultural events (readings, concerts), and the Ave Verum international choir competition is also held there .

Casino Velden

Casino Velden, in Velden am Wörthersee

Casino Velden was opened on July 14, 1950 as the fifth casino in Austria. In the summer of 1974, an open-air play area with initially two tables was built. In November 1987, a new construction of the casino began, which was opened on May 26, 1989. The European Poker Championship organized by Casinos Austria has been played in Velden since 2015 .

See also

Sources, web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b New board from May 1st in office . OTS notification dated April 30, 2019, accessed May 1, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c Annual Report Casinos Austria 2017 https://www.casinos.at/downloads/Geschaeftsbericht-2017-18.pdf
  3. ^ The concession for the casino company. In:  Wiener Zeitung , No. 5/1934 (CCXXXI. Volume), January 6, 1934, p. 4, bottom left. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz,
    Company logs. (...) Department B. Laxenburg, Oesterreichische Casino AG. In:  Official Journal of the Wiener Zeitung , No. 13/1934 (CCXXXI. Year), January 15, 1934, p. 30, center right. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz.
  4. ↑ Stefan Müller: The game of his life. In: time. August 10, 2015, accessed May 10, 2016 .
  5. ^ Casinos Austria International. In: casinosaustriainternational.com. Casinos Austria International Holding GmbH, accessed on March 15, 2018 (English).
  6. ↑ https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFnahm.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=10004611
  7. ↑ Gastein loses its casino on ORF Salzburg on October 3, 2013, accessed on March 7, 2016.
  8. ↑ Casino Bad Gastein on Gastein.com accessed on March 7, 2016
  9. ↑ Casinos Austria International threatens license withdrawal - in Argentina. In: boerse-express.com. Retrieved May 19, 2016 .
  10. ↑ http://www.casinos.at/content/content.aspx?muid=a22b7231-62cb-4e4f-82b3-4175e1c46e79
  11. ↑ Player protection for EU citizens too. In: kurier.at. April 15, 2012, accessed December 23, 2017 .
  12. ↑ derStandard.at: Czech Sazka becomes the largest shareholder in Casinos Austria AG . Article from January 15, 2018, accessed on January 15, 2018.
  13. ^ Andrea Hodoschek: Leo Wallner sold his casino shares. In: Courier. July 21, 2015, accessed February 1, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Czech Sazka Group takes over majority of Casinos Austria. In: derstandard.de. June 26, 2020, accessed June 26, 2020 .
  15. ↑ [1] , accessed April 25, 2016
  16. ↑ courier: Alexander Labak is boss at Casinos Austria and lotteries . Article dated May 18, 2017, accessed August 14, 2017.
  17. ↑ New management team at casinos . Article dated March 28, 2019, accessed March 30, 2019.
  18. ↑ a b c d e Austrian Lotteries, organizational chart accessed on September 13, 2015
  19. ↑ ÖLG Holding GmbH at www.firmenabc.at (accessed on September 13, 2015)
  20. ^ Casino Baden 2005. The history of the building. In: Casinos Austria website. Retrieved September 29, 2017 .
  21. ↑ www.casinos.at/de/velden/über uns / geschichte