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 organise 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 internationalise 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 centres 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 centres 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