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Arena Casino is sold for zero lek under the nose of Taxes and Financial Intelligence
2025-11-24 22:27:32 / EKONOMI&SOCIALE
Albania is a country where miracles are normal and hardly surprise anyone anymore. Perhaps this is the reason why they happen every day.
A few days ago, an unusual transaction took place in the gambling market. Arena Casino, the casino located in the tower of the Air Albania national stadium, changed hands. The sale price of the company was zero lek.
Capital publishes documents of a transaction that in any country would have raised the antennae of fiscal authorities for possible evasion and those of financial intelligence for the risk of money laundering. But in Albania, it all happens under the noses of these authorities.
According to the documents, Albstar sold the casino simply by withdrawing its capital in kind, while the buyer replaced the seller's capital with its own capital in kind.
Capital inflows and outflows, but zero transactions
Albanian gambling law requires companies that obtain a casino license to have a minimum capital of 1.2 billion lek, or about 12.4 million euros. But this mandatory legal requirement has been circumvented by almost all of Albania's casinos through gimmicks.
In June 2021, the Albastar company founded the Space+ company, which is the license holder for the casino located at the stadium. But there was no money for capital. However, this problem was easily solved.
A month before receiving the license, the Albstar company went to court to appoint a real estate appraiser to evaluate a piece of land it owned in Zharrës, Fier. The court appointed Elvira Lamen as the expert.
The property in Zharrës consisted of an area of agricultural land of approximately 12.5 hectares, a large part of which was degraded after being used by Albstar as a quarry.
Property in Zharrez that was valued at 13 million euros
And yet Ms. Lame compiled an appraisal report valuing the property at 85 euros per square meter, which surprisingly brought its total value to 1.28 billion lekë, or about 13 million euros. Exactly the amount needed to obtain the license, even though Albstar itself had only purchased it for 420 thousand euros.
This was the property that Albstar placed as capital to meet the legal requirement, which required casino companies to have capital of 1.2 billion lek.
Albstar held the casino for more than 4 years. In 2023, Space+ earned 760 thousand euros after taxes, while last year the casino's net profit jumped to 1.75 million euros. But a week ago, Albstar decided to sell this profitable activity for zero lek.
"The Company will increase its capital through the issuance of new shares, which will be subscribed by the new shareholder, the company GLG Investment Sh.pk, and at the same time will reduce its capital by canceling the shares of the existing shareholder Alb-Star Sh.pk, and by returning to it the contribution paid to the Company's capital. During this process, the capital of the company Space+ Sh.a. will not fall at any time below the minimum value of 1,200,000,000 lek according to the requirements of Law No. 155/2015 "On Games of Chance in the Republic of Albania," the sales contract states.
Arena Casino sales contract
So the buyer did not pay a penny to buy the casino. The seller also did not receive a penny to sell it. What happened is that Albstar simply withdrew the Zharrëza land from the capital of the Space+ company and walked away, leaving it to the buyer GLG Investment, which also has a similar trick with the capital.
Formally, this is a transaction that is not expressly prohibited by fiscal legislation. But when a casino in the middle of Tirana is sold through such a scheming transaction, this should normally have raised the eyebrows of the Tax and Anti-Money Laundering Agency.
But the transaction has been approved by state structures, including the Gambling Supervisory Authority. The reasons are related to the people behind the purchase of the casino.
Although formally the owner of the acquiring company GLG Investment is a company registered in Wyoming, USA, with secret ownership, traces of its shareholders can be found in the company name GLG itself. An acronym, the first two letters of which coincide with the initials of Gerti Luman, the man who founded GLG.
But its threads continue in Troy, Michigan, where Mr. Lumani entered the right social circle. And while the Albanian Tax Office diligently pursues citizens who sell milk and cottage cheese on the streets, a casino in the middle of Tirana is being sold for zero lek./ Kapitali
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