Mendoza gaming institute cuts workforce 28.7%

The Mendoza Provincial Gaming and Casinos Institute (IPJyC) has closed its voluntary retirement program with 130 workers leaving, cutting its payroll by 28.7%

The Argentinian provincial institution went from 453 to 323 employees. Another 43 remain on standby while the institute and the union weigh where to place them.

Institute authorities confirmed the figures after the enrollment window under Provincial Law 9,718 expired on September 30, and the union says it will receive no further applications. 

The program offered compensation equal to 120% of the severance owed. It forms part of a restructuring pushed this year by the administration of Gov. Alfredo Cornejo through the Finance Ministry, headed by Víctor Fayad.

Table games at Casino Central stopped operating on August 5, and 82 workers from that area were initially placed on standby. Thirty-nine of them took the retirement package, leaving 43.

Under the applicable rules, they keep receiving salaries for six months, until February 2027, while reassignment is explored; without a transfer, ordinary severance applies.

Institute sources previously said that table games revenue covered only 29% of the salaries of workers assigned to that sector, with other activities financing the gap.

The Unión de Personal de Juegos del Casino de Mendoza (UPJCM), led by Diego Luconi, confirmed the figures and asked that all workers on standby keep their jobs at the institute or in other provincial agencies. The union is evaluating which areas could take on former table games staff, but no decision has been made on absorbing all of them internally.

State casino revenue has also dropped. Monthly gaming revenue at state casinos averaged about ARS1bn ($647.000) between April and August, down 40.4% from the ARS1.7bn average of January and February, after a March fire shut down Casino Zona Este in San Martín. 

September revenue at Casino Sede Central and General Alvear totaled ARS1.023bn, 2.6% below August.

Treated as electronic gaming revenue, that is 44.7% below January, when all three casinos were operating.