Athens

"I was reminded of—and perhaps haunted by—what the historian Gibbon said of Athens. “In the end,” he wrote in his epitaph for the ancient Republic, “more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life and they lost it all—security, comfort and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom of responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free"

"Soon came the hammer blow. On the day that the government announced that Sun would be awarded the casino rights for Athens for the next 50 years, I went out with Marc Roussos for a celebratory dinner. We had put in a lot of hard work to win the bid. While we were seated at the dinner table, an acquaintance of Roussos’s strolled up. “You guys did well,” he said, “only having to give a $10 million backhander. You got it cheap.” The whole conversation was in Greek, so I did not understand at first. Then Roussos translated for me. It seemed that it was widely known, including by the press, that at least one of Sun’s Greek partners – if not all of them – had allegedly participated in a huge bribe to ensure that our bid would win. I simply could not believe it. I called the senior partner and demanded a meeting. It was true, the partner confirmed, stating that I must have been naive to think that we could win the bid based only on my excellent presentation. “That’s not the way it works here,” he said with a smile. “What else did you expect?” I did not need to phone Sol to know what to do. I called a partners’ meeting and announced that Sun, despite having won the bid, was walking away and would sue the partners for our costs to date and $10 million. “That’s a number that you seem to like,” I announced as Roussos and I stomped out of the room. When I called Sol to give him first the good news and then the bad, his reaction was immediate. “You did the right thing, Pete. But you had better get your arse out of there before they find you tied to a concrete slab at the bottom of the Med.”"

"When I moved back into the corner office in Henley, once again working for Sol, I soon got a call from an old friend who advised me that the Greek government was about to launch a tender process to build and operate a casino in Athens. I had previously looked at acquiring the old casino on Mount Parnitha outside the great city. Despite being exceptionally difficult to access from downtown Athens, the place did very well. To get there, you either drove up a narrow and precarious road from the city or took a jerky old cable car. Now the Greek government apparently saw dollar signs in allowing a modern casino much closer to the city, on the site of an old air-force station abutting the Mediterranean between Athens and the Port of Piraeus. It seemed that for the privilege of building and operating a large casino for a term of 50 years, the government would charge $50 million in key money. It was about to launch a request for candidates to design, build, operate and pay for the casino. I practically salivated at the idea. A casino so close to Athens and with such easy access was a no-brainer. Coupled with the Greeks’ love of gambling, it could be the proverbial licence to print money. I went to tell Sol. “There is no fucking way we are going to operate in Greece,” he muttered. “They are all a bunch of crooks.”"