Workers fight to reopen Casino de Campione d’Italia

Media reports suggest that a group of Swiss investors is looking at the possibility of acquiring Casino de Campione d’Italia, with an eye to transforming the property into a medical clinic and residential complex.

The news comes after a tribunal ruled that the property - 100 percent owned by the municipality of Campione d’Italia - was bankrupt, rejecting a plan by the casino’s management and the municipal authorities to restructure its E132m debt.

Prior to its closure, the casino transferred a fixed sum each year to Campione d’Italia - an Italian exclave within Switzerland’s Canton of Ticino - but for months it failed to pay any contributions and reportedly owed the municipality E25m.

With the casino’s nearly 500 staff - a quarter of the municipality’s total popula- tion - out of work, the town is now facing its own financial woes.

In September, a delegation of union officials representing the casino’s workers met with the prefect for Como, Ignazio Coccia to discuss to situation and to request the Ministry of Interior’s intervention.

A month prior, court appointed liquidators clarified that it would legally impossible for the casino to reopen.

“We’re conscious of the serious impact on the entire community in Campione,” said liquidators Elisabetta Brugnoni, Sandro Litigio, and Giulia Pusterla in a statement. “[However] the company is obliged to immediately return any movable or immovable assets to the Municipality.”

Campione’s original casino was built in 1917 but was replaced in 2007 by a new nine-floor property hosting 56 gaming tables and 500 slot machines.