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The Horseshoe Casino reopened Wednesday when operators decided to ignore what they consider an  illegal closure by the Municipalidad de San José.
Jaime Ligator, president of the casino corporation, Favitro S.A., said he fully expected the Policia Municipal to close the place up again. But they did not.

Jaime Ligator  He is counting on an appeal for relief that the corporation’s lawyers filed for Wednesday with the Sala IV constitutional court. They seek a high court interpretation of a section of
the municipal code. While the Sala IV appeal is in progress, municipal officials cannot close the place again, he noted. Ligator said the closings started Friday. He was closed down again Saturday and again Tuesday, all for different reasons, he said.

Municipal officials pasted notices of closure across the front entrance door.

The case is a complex one and involves patentes or business licenses going back to the 1980s.

The corporation has two licenses. One allows it to serve alcohol as a night club and another as a casino. Ligator displayed paperwork Wednesday that showed the licenses existed.

Ligator expressed concern for his 150 employees, which he sent home about 4 p.m. Wednesday. He said he was paying about $10,000 a day in expenses. But he said he planned to open up as a casino again today.

The casino is on the southwest corner of Avenida 1 and Calle 9.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 31st, 2006 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Costa Rica News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.