of existing suites and an upgrade of some former rooms to suites, costing some $50,000 each, is almost complete. In November, during anniversary festivities for the Conrad, the suite categories will be renamed to Conrad, Caesars, Vegas, Punta and Flamingo. Gremaud told Hotelier Newsin October, “We want to maintain the hotel
within the current standards of international hotel management. The greater the variety of products, the better we can satisfy the market. Our demand for suites is growing, and with this reformulation, the complex has a total of 41 totally re- newed suites, where before we had only 30 such units.” The casino at the Conrad features over 1,500 slots and 72 gaming tables in
a total area of 3,400 square meters, about 36,600 square feet. Included in those numbers is Club Conrad, a members-only, 450-square-meter room with 24 ta- bles, and Club Fortuna, a similar 312-square-meter VIP slot room with 66 ma- chines. The 11 tables of the poker room are also part of the mix. The casino is open around the clock. The minimum age of admission is 18. The casino is again playing host to the annual Conrad Poker Tour. For
2011, starting in March, the tour has consisted of 16 events of two days each. The re-entry tournaments generally have had a buy-in per event of $1,000 with a $500 add-on. For some events, Conrad has agreed to add as much as $50,000 if needed, to bring the prize pool up to a minimum of $200,000. The series will conclude with a three-day, $2,500 re-buy event December 3-5, with a prize pool of $2 million. In 2010, the final event drew 503 players, creating a prize pool that topped the $2 million mark, the highest in the first four years of the tour. José M. Silva, the international marketing executive responsible for promot-
ing the Conrad Poker Tour in Brazil, says, “Our goal for 2011 is to continue to grow the sport, support the events and surpass the previous prize pool.” There are two other smaller but important projects under way in Uruguay.
One is the complete redevelopment of the 90-year-old Hotel Casino Carrasco in the capital Montevideo. The other is a combination new build-reconstruction of a hotel and Casino Rivera, in the town of Rivera, which is literally on the border with Brazil. Carrasco Nobile is the Spanish/Argentine consortium that won the bid to
completely restore the Hotel Casino Carrasco. The consortium, composed of Spain-based gaming concern Codere, French hotel group Accor and investors Global Partners and AGG, has a 30-year license to operate gaming at the venue. Total investment in the work is expected to be $60 million. The hotel will be a 116-room Sofitel, the top luxury brand from Accor. In-
cluded are restaurants, a spa and convention space. Gilles Gonzalez, operations manager of Sofitel for Latin America when the
license was awarded in late 2009, said, “We are going to recover the soul of the Hotel Casino Carrasco. We want it to become a regional benchmark for hotel service, for its exclusive casino and its special ambience.” The opening is scheduled for July 20, 2012.
Casino Rivera is being reconstructed to take advantage of an increase in
commercial activity in this town at the northern edge of Uruguay. The city is ad- jacent the Brazilian town of Santana do Livramento—the border actually is the only thing separating the two towns. However, Rivera has a duty-free zone, which has been attracting huge numbers of shoppers from both countries. Business prospects apparently seem good enough for a consortium of devel-
opers from Argentina and Uruguay to invest $32 million to refurbish the casino and put up a 66-room hotel. Manteo, as the group is known, will remodel and modernize the existing casino, which when complete will have 18 gaming tables and 170 slots. The hotel will feature a spa, solarium, swimming pool, two restau- rants, event center for 220 persons, theater with 500 seats and duty free shop- ping. Six hotel suites will be created for VIP players.
argentina Trilenium Casino
The two largest casinos in Ar- gentina are Trilenium Casino and City Center Rosario. Both offer ample gaming opportunities, but where Trilenium does not have its own hotel, City Center Rosario has a five-star, 188-room Pullman Hotel, complete with spa, swimming pools, tennis courts, meeting and function rooms—all the amenities expected of a modern casino resort. Trilenium, the older of the two properties, is situated in Tigre, Buenos Aires
province, a town about 20 miles northwest of the city of Buenos Aires. With no hotel connected, the casino relies on commuter clientele, providing parking for 1,600 cars. The casino is 22,000 square meters spread over three stories. A total of
City Center Rosario
www.ggbmagazine.com • November 2011
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