David Lindsay
The licences of several employees of the Casinò di Venezia have been revoked by the Lotteries and Gaming Authority following what the Authority’s chief executive officer Mario Galea described as “actions not in line with the decency one would expect from any normal person”.
The incident took place on the night of 9 July, the night Italy won the World Cup, and while details of the incident remain sketchy it was thought to have been sparked off by the casino’s manager who, according people who have seen tapes of the night, flew into a violent rage – causing damage and upsetting clients in the process.
The source of the manager’s anger is not clear, but it could have been related to an incident on the night in which two underage children of Italian junkets had managed to gain entrance to the casino.
“We took action not only on the underage issue, but there was other stuff that happened,” Mr Galea said. “I cannot tell you what that was but they were actions that were not considered to be in line with the decency expected of a normal person.
“What the Authority does in such cases is it revokes the person’s licence. In this case we revoked the licences of a number of people who were employed at the casino.”
After reviewing the casino’s tapes of the night, which have now been deleted after being kept by the casino for the obligatory seven-day period, Mr Galea explained, “There were some incidents and certain behaviour on the night we wanted to take action on. We investigated them and the Authority took action immediately”.
He added, “Certainly what interested us was the fact that there were events and behaviour that go against gaming responsibility. If you’re not responsible toward your customers and your licence, then expect us to come and take action.”
Italian media reports vary on whether the manager, who insists he resigned on the night, was fired or quit.
On the subject, Mr Galea comments, “We are not sure what happened exactly , and whether he was fired or quit is really a managerial matter.”
The managerial mayhem follows another poor managerial decision on 4 July when the General Workers Union hospitality section secretary Josef Bugeja called a meeting with the casino’s employees to discuss what the union considered to be three unfair dismissals.
The two-hour supposedly private meeting, which was held at the casino with the management’s permission, had been secretly taped by orders of the casino’s management.
The GWU labelled the act as a violation of both trade unionism ethics and data protection law in that the recording was made without the consent of those present and led the GWU to adjourn the meeting and order a strike.