The giant CIRSA leisure and entertainment empire will be helping
spread the word, and the WSOP satellite tournaments action, in Latin
America this year following an agreement signed this week with the
World Series of Poker owners, Harrah's Entertainment.
The terms of the deal call for CIRSA (Compania Internacional de
Recreativos SA) to organize the Majestic Poker Tour in
its terrestrial casinos in Latin America, and then opt to send the
winners to the annual World
Series of Poker grand finale. Harrah's management described the
deal as an important step in their strategy to internationalize the
WSOP.
This year, entrants to the World Series Main Event won more than US
$52.8 million in prize money, and Joe Hachem of Australia captured
the first-place prize of $7.5 million.
For readers who don't know CIRSA, some indication of it's size and
scope may be of interest. Founded in Barcelona, Spain 26 years ago,
the company as grown into a substantial group employing over 10 000
people in 60 mainly Latin countries. It has interests in almost every
sphere of gaming entertainment including technology for Internet gambling,
and runs 3 R&D centers with an annual budget of Euro 60 million.
CIRSA Corporation
currently has 15 traditional casinos and 37 electronic casinos, which
receive more than 13 million visitors a year. It also manages entertainment
arcades (549 properties) 57 bingo halls with a total of 43 000 seats
and 10 leisure centers visited by 8 million people a year. The group
manages the corporate sector of Disney Europe.
The Caribbean and Latin America are the areas in which CIRSA is most
active, and where it expects to continue to expand. CIRSA intends
to inaugurate a second river-boat casino in Argentina and has presented
tenders for new halls in Chile.