THE management of Sizzling Slots Limited Gaming Group has dismissed as “erroneous, misleading and most unfortunate”, a report which, the group said, gave the impression that it was suffering from financial difficulty and closures.

According to CEO of the gaming company, Gassan Azan, contrary to the report in last Friday’s Financial Gleaner, the gaming group “is alive and well and the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC) is fully aware of its entire operations”.

Azan, in a statement issued Monday, explained that following the establishment of Sizzling Slots in 2010, a policy change in the industry made it possible for the group to establish bigger operations with a far greater number of slot machines.

“As a result, a strategic decision was taken to open two large operations replacing the small shops in downtown Kingston and Half-Way-Tree,” he said. “Accordingly, The Vault Gaming Lounge at the Wyndham Kingston Hotel and Sizzling Slots in Old Harbour were established.”

Azan pointed out that the change in operations was done without any loss of jobs as workers at the two previous Sizzling Slot locations were absorbed into the larger gaming operations.

He said “the erroneous report was particularly unfortunate”, because of the mammoth effort that the company and its staff have had to make in order to sustain operations at the Wyndham location, following a fire in March 2013 which forced the hotel to close after a section of the property was damaged.

Azan said it was costing The Vault millions of dollars each month to compensate for the adverse effects that the fire had on the location. This included generating its own electricity for eight months as well as many other interventions it continues to make to maintain The Vault as a high-level operation.

He also said that the report was completely contrary to an address last week in which the chairman of the BGLC, Gary Peart, painted a buoyant picture of the gaming industry and commented on the positive performance of the Vault/Sizzling Slots Group.

Azan said that Sizzling Slots Limited had indeed made its mark on the sector and in its contribution to government revenues. He cautioned that the “possible backlash of careless reports”… only made doing business in Jamaica and creating and sustaining employment in the current challenging climate, that much difficult.