Council of State suspends new Brussels casino licence

The Belgian Council of State has decided to suspend the 15-year Brussels casino licence awarded to Napoleon Games following a challenge from current licence holder Viage.

Viage put forward several arguments to challenge the award of the licence to its competitor, namely failure to comply with the award criteria, insufficient reasoning for the decision, and what it described as manifest errors of assessment. 

The issue of a conflict of interest involving the mayor of Brussels, Philippe Close (PS), was also raised because Close sits on the board of directors for one of Napoleon Games' most important partners - Anderlecht football club - and did not recuse himself from the meeting on the awarding of the contract.

Following an application for a suspension order, the Council of State ruled in Viage’s favour in regards to the €750 million contract.

In its ruling, the court highlighted several shortcomings in the conduct of the procedure, particularly regarding the reasoning behind the decision and compliance with European regulations.

The Council of State found, based on its assessment, that “not all elements of the tender specifications had been adequately taken into account”. 

The court also considered that certain elements that were taken into account “do not appear to be relevant to the subject matter of the concession”.

Furthermore, the council ruled that the obligations under the European regulation on foreign subsidies that distort the internal market were not complied with.

The City of Brussels must now either restart the award procedure, which will take several months while the current licence expires on 31 December this year, or it confirms the selection of Napoleon Games by amending its reasoning to make it legally more robust.

A third option would be to reassess the bids submitted during the currently suspended procedure.

None of these options is likely to prevent a new appeal from a rejected bidder, however. 

“We’re pleased that the Council of State has ruled in our favour,” said Viage spokesperson Siham Makrache. 

“We expect the case, on which we have worked for years, to be reviewed and for this to be done correctly.” 

Viage hopes, however, that the procedure for awarding the concession will not be restarted, “as that would cost us another year. We are asking for certainty, not temporary solutions or extensions.”

Viage operated the casino from 2010. In the latest award procedure, Viage came in a very close second among five total bids.

“The City takes note of the Council of State’s ruling,” mayor Close said via his spokesperson in a reaction to the decision to suspend the licence. 

“We are carefully examining the judgement to determine what next steps we need to take. At this stage, it’s still too early to comment further.”

Brussels alderman for trade and the economy, Didier Wauters (Les Engagés), said: “On the one hand, I’m surprised, because I feel that this case has been handled with great care and the procedure was followed rigorously, but on the other hand, the Council of State has followed the auditor’s advice: in that respect, this decision did not come out of the blue.”

“We need to examine the judgment thoroughly and will meet with the full college of aldermen to discuss this. I cannot yet say whether we can work with a temporary extension of the current licence to prevent the casino from having to close.”

The Brussels casino generates an annual royalty of €10 million for the City of Brussels.