ATHENS – A Greek arbitration panel rejected an appeal by the Florida-based Hard Rock International challenging its disqualification from a casino license for the long-delayed 8-billion-euro ($8.92 billion) development of the abandoned Hellenikon International Airport at the Capital’s southeastern coast.

The Hellenic Gaming Commission’s board – the state’s regulator and contracting body for gaming, had thrown out Hard Rock’s bid and awarded the license to the Connecticut-based Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment.

The business newspaper Naftemporiki said, citing unnamed sources, that Hard Rock had sent a letter of guarantee outside the specified time frame and didn’t have enough construction experience to get the casino up and operating and not enough financing.

Following publication of the decision, Hard Rock will have 10 days to appeal to the country’s highest administrative court, the Council of State.

Hard Rock also claimed that the seven-member gaming commission (HGC) ruled that its appeal includes “specific reasons and arguments” for contesting the rejected tender decision but didn’t specify the reasons and arguments although it charged that “serious irregularities” were among them, the paper had said earlier.