An international casino company that already has two locations in San José plans to build a $5.3 million gambling complex near Juan Santamaría Airport. The company is International Thunderbird Gaming Corp., a California firm. The company said in a press release that the new casino, a joint venture with local investors, will have 250 gaming machines and 84 new gaming positions. That size would make the Alajuela casino the largest in Costa Rica. The news of the project is contained in a shareholder letter from the publicly held company. The summary said that the development also would include the structure for a Denny’s Restaurant. The hotel involved is the Hotel Hampton Inn-Aeropuerto. The hotel is operated by the Grupo Marta S.A., which also operates the Hotel Best Western Irazú where the group opened the first Denny’s in Costa Rica in 1999. The Hampton hotel is about a kilometer from the international airport on the Panamerican Highway. Thunderbird operates the Fiesta casino in the |
Hotel Presidente on the pedestrian
mall in downtown San José and also the casino in the Gran Hotel Costa Rica near the Teatro Nacional. By law, casinos in Costa Rica must be associated with hotels except in the case of casinos that existed before the law was passed. Thunderbird said it had entered into an agreement with a U.S. financial group to borrow up to $10 million to pay for various projects it plans to undertake in the next 12 months. The Costa Rican project will be paid from this money. Thunderbird has casino properties in Panamá, Guatemala, Venezuela and in Nicaragua. The firm said it plans to open at least two casinos in Chile once legislation is approved for that purpose. The news release was issued in the name of Jack R. Mitchell, president and CEO. In the last financial report available, for the third quarter of 2003, the company had revenues of $5.4 million, an increase of 28 percent over 2002. Net income for the quarter was $704,000 compared to a loss of $63,000 during the third quarter of 2002. The company’s stock is traded by the Canadian Trading and Quotation System, Inc. |