Panama Identities of Casino Shareholders, Owners Confirmed

Panama: Identities of Casino Shareholders, Owners Confirmed
Story by La Prensa

Former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares (left) and his friend and one-time Housing Minister, Roosevelt Thayer.

It took the government less than 24 hours to uncover the truth behind the scandal involving the country's two heavyweight gaming companies.

Roosevelt Thayer and Enrique Pretelt, two intimates of former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares, have been revealed as shareholders of Lucky Games and Gaming & Services of Panama.

After the two companies merged, in 2007, CIRSA Panama, a subsidiary of the Spanish multinational firm, purchased 71 percent of the shares. Pretelt and Thayer each own half of the remaining 29 percent.

Until this week, Thayer, a friend and former official of Pérez Balladares' administration, and Pretelt, the former leader's son-in-law, had managed to obscure their connection to the company.

On Tuesday, however, official sources reported that the company had presented share certificates belonging to the two men to the Gaming Control Board, which had asked for that information.

Now the Executive Branch has asked for records of dividend checks paid by the two companies so as to trace the money trail back to the source of operations.

Gaming & Services of Panama and Lucky Games operate some 23 slot machine halls throughout the country. The former disbursed $20 million to win the public solicitation in 1997 and some months later, sold a quarter of its shares for just $250,000. Records show that Pretelt and Thayer were the beneficiaries of this special sale price.

Lucky Games, meanwhile, received a direct grant in 1996 from the Pérez Balladares administration. The owners of the company turned out to be none other than Thayer and Pretelt, though they kept their identities hidden behind a figurehead.

Between 2005 and 2008, the two companies' combined revenue totaled $ 226 million, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. According to bank records released to this newspaper through transparency laws, a portion of those profits was transferred to Shelf Holding Inc., a company with ties to former President Perez Balladares.