Written by Ireland May Or May Not Have A New Casino Soon
The Republic of Ireland could certainly do with a cash injection at the moment – it’s one of the hardest hit of the EU nations with enormous national debt, rising unemployment, falling house prices and thousands of newly constructed, unoccupied properties, built when the housing boom was at its peak.
So what are the objections to this new development? It would create thousands of much-needed jobs during and after its construction and the 500 room hotel and casino resort would surely be a revenue raiser for the local authority. The objections will be voiced during an oral hearing on March 8th so they will become clearer then although an appeals process has already agreed that the original planning application should go ahead.
Las Vegas Sands Expansion Plans
Las Vegas Sands is on the road to global expansion firstly with an attempt to expand its operations in Singapore via its Marina Bay Sands subsidiary and secondly – and this is the big one – it’s looking to spend some $20 billion, probably in Madrid or Barcelona to build what Chairman Sheldon Adelson is calling a Las Vegas mini-strip.
The scale of the project is what makes this impressive, it would be essentially building several top notch casino resorts in one go incorporating some 20,000 hotel rooms – this would require significant cooperation from the Spanish authorities in terms of planning permission and tax breaks, not to mention finding a stretch of land big enough to accommodate the whole thing.
Also interesting would be the competition between Barcelona and Madrid (assuming that they both wanted this development) – the two traditional representatives of their regions fighting it our for the future of tourism. Well it’s probably not that dramatic but you get my point.
Europe has been a favoured destination for Las Vegas Sands for some time now, particularly since the success of Marina Bay Sands and the rise of Singapore as a gambling mecca and Spain seems a good place to start. But please don’t call it Euro-Vegas.
