The Board of Directors of Casino Lugano informs that 2011 closed with a net profit after tax of CHF 912,000, compared to CHF 1,000,000 the previous year. This result will allow the General Assembly to propose a dividend of CHF 1,000,000, unchanged from the previous year. The result is considered satisfactory given the tough economic and competitive context in which it is compared.
Casino Lugano SA has successfully completed the reorganization begun in 2009 and aggravated by a number of important external factors such as the sharp decline of the franc-euro exchange rate, the economic crisis that has hit Italy, the target market, the growing competition in the Italian market of Video Lotteries (VLT) and online portals, increased taxation and new federal rules introduced by the Federal Council.
The Board also advises that the Casino Lugano Thonhauser Hubertus, CEO of the Company, has accepted an important mandate of an international team in games and leave the direction of the Casino of Lugano in late June 2012. In addition to this mandate Thonhauser will enter the board of Grand Casino Baden, the largest casinos in Switzerland, 100% owned by the city of Baden. He will still, at the express desire of the Board, the Board of Lugano Casino as vice president.
Hubertus Thonhauser, in office since 2009, is driving home from the game through a very difficult market situation. “Despite a difficult economic and legal constraints increasingly limited the reorganization has been completed successfully and Casino Lugano has withstood the crisis better than the direct competition,” said Erasmo Pelli, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Casino Lugano. “For this reason we are very pleased that Thonhauser Hubertus, whom we thank for his total commitment over the last three years, remains a member of our Board in the future”.
New Director of Casino Lugano SA from 1 July 2012 will be Luca Antonini, currently Deputy Director and Compliance Officer. The forty Ticino, law graduate, he served his activities at Casino Lugano in the function of board member since 2009 and previously worked for the Casino and Locarno, as a lawyer at the Federal Commission of Casinos in Berna.
