In seven years the International Thunderbird Gaming Corporation has become one of the fastest growing businesses in Central America. The company started with a first step into the region in 1997 with a Video Lottery operation in Guatemala, the first federally licensed gaming machine business in the country.

In 1998, after Venezuela brought in its gaming regulations, Thunderbird had the first casino to open on the Venezuelan mainland, in Puerto Ordaz. This industrial city is home to 1.2 million people and the Thunderbird Fiesta Casino. There are six Fiesta Casinos in Panama, two of them in Panama City. The Fiesta Casino located in the Hotel El Panama is one of the largest revenue generating casinos in Latin America.

Managua’s Fiesta Casino opened in 2000 but the company initially intended to withdraw from Nicaragua. However, it became partners with a local company who ran Pharaoh’s Casino in Managua and offered to administrate the Fiesta. Thunderbird Gaming has now increased its direct and indirect ownership interest in the Nicaraguan company, Buena Esperanza, which manages the Pharaoh’s and Fiesta Casinos. It has acquired 23% of the shares from one of Buena Esperanza’s majority shareholders, giving it a 47% holding. Next February a new Pharaoh’s Casino will open in Managua, including a five-star hotel.

Since July 2004 Thunderbird has three gaming operations in Costa Rica. The company has also arranged the finance for a $4.7 million project to build a Fiesta Casino in Alajuela. The casino is due to open in 2005. Now that Chile has agreed its gaming legislation there may be Fiesta Casinos for that country in the future. The company intends to bid for up to eight licences and would hope to be awarded at least two.

Beyond Latin America Thunderbird also has an agreement with a Philippine group for a casino hotel, in the Rizal district near Manila, that was granted a licence by PAGCOR in November and should be open by March. The wings of Thunderbird are spreading wider than ever.

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