By virtue of its location alone, the resort has amazing revenue potential. Greeks spend an estimated 1.7 billion euros each year at casinos and Mont Parnes is the only gaming facility in the greater Athens area. Although Loutraki currently hosts the country’s top earning casino, with a gross income of 165.8 million euros in 2002, the seaside town lies 80km from Athens. The Mont Parnes site, on the other hand, is situated just 35 km northwest of the capital and is thus likely to rival Loutraki in attracting gamblers. Moreover, the government remains adamantly opposed to issuing any further casino licences, securing Mont Parnes’ title as the sole gambling venue in the vicinity.
High rollers and bulldozers
Hyatt Regency Hotels has already spent 130 million euros obtaining its 49% stake in Mont Parnes. It holds 70% of the shares, while Greece’s biggest construction firm, Elliniki Technodomiki , owns the remaining 30%. The company also doled out a further 5 million euros for temporary, operational and aesthetic improvements that have boosted the casino’s capacity and allowed the venue to remain functional during its full-scale reconstruction. This investment has yielded an interim expansion of the casino’s gaming operation from 42 to 61 table games and from 360 to 500 slot machines.
When asked why the reconstruction is taking place in two phases, Evi Lazou, Vice-President of Marketing at Hyatt Regency Hotels & Tourism (Hellas) SA, told GreeceNow: “Due to the heavy damage caused to certain areas of the building by an earthquake, a basic refurbishment of the existing facility was not possible. This is the reason why a full reconstruction of the property was decided.” Although the said disastrous tremor of September 1999 destroyed some of the building’s vital foundations, shutting down completely during the Olympic high season was simply not an option.
As reported in the Coin Slot , the gambling industry’s leading weekly publication, one of the Greek government’s conditions for partial privatisation was that the casino would remain up and running. “Part of our commitment to the government,” states the company’s managing director, “was that we would keep the existing operation open and the reconstruction would take place around the casino.”
The full overhaul of the property is scheduled to take place over the next three to four years with total investment expected to exceed 250 million euros. Once complete, the new venue will feature a modern American-style casino with 110 table games and 1,500 slot machines, offering roulette, blackjack, punto banco and poker. Other amenities are to include a separate salon privé, a five-star hotel with ninety-one rooms, a fitness centre and spa, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, retail shops, a multifunction showroom/ conference centre, restaurants and bars. A state-of-the-art cable car (due for completion in the winter of 2004) will transport eager gamblers from Mt. Parnitha’s base to the casino at the astonishing rate of 2,000 customers per hour.
In the meantime, to ensure that bad weather - like the recent heavy (for Greek standards) snowfall - does not deter those itching to test their luck, the casino widely advertises the fact that is has its own snow-removal apparatus to clear the dangerous roads zig-zaging up to the mountain's summit.
Money doesn’t grow on trees
The casino does have its detractors, namely a handful of environmental groups who fear that that the refurbishment project will jeopardise the eco-system of the surrounding Parnitha National Park , declared an environmentally protected area in 1961. Covering 3,800 hectares, the mountainous region is draped in expansive fir and pine forests, as well as the characteristic foliages of the Mediterranean, such as holm-oak, arbutus, pomegranate and Judas trees. The park is also home to deer, foxes, hares, badgers, polecats, weasels, jackals, squirrels and a pair of golden eagles.
Any damage to Parnitha’s natural treasures would be a pity indeed, but the complaints of preservationists have largely been quelled by Hyatt Regency’s environmentally conscious approach to developing the property. Although members of the coordinating Committee for the Preservation of Parnitha alleged that plans for the casino included expansion across 310 hectares of the protected woodland, Hellenic Tourist Real Estates SA (ETA), a subsidiary of Greek National Tourism Organization , quickly dispelled such accusations.
In fact, Hyatt is building the new structure on the exact footprint of the existing site. Teaming up with an architectural firm specialising in mountain resorts, the Hyatt group maintains that it will be possible “to achieve a non-intrusive construction”, i.e. in keeping with the surrounding environment. “The protection of the environment and the respect of the local community are cornerstones of our company,” a Hyatt representative informed GreeceNow. “This is obvious in the three properties our company has already developed and/ or renovated in Greece – the Regency Casino Thessaloniki, Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki and Hotel Grande Bretagne .”
To prove its intentions, the Hyatt group has donated 300,000 euros to the Mont Parnes Forestry Department in 2003 for conservation related works.
More than luck
Hyatt’s Mont Parnes venture is obviously taking cues from the eminently successful Regency Hotel and Casino that opened near Thessaloniki’s airport in 1999. Open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the Thessaloniki casino boasts a membership figure of 500,000 from an area of just over one million inhabitants. The commercial strategy of the Thessaloniki and the Mont Parnes establishments will be similar: offer a large-capacity casino with the majority of games directed at mid-rage betters, while also providing ultra-luxurious facilities for those elite gamblers willing to wager big bucks. So far, it seems to be a winning formula. If Hyatt’s Mont Parnes project manages to match the success of its Thessaloniki counterpart, the company will have truly hit the jackpot.
