Developers of a new casino to be built at high expense in Middlesbrough are predicting a regenerative boost to the town once it has been completed, with an old office block being transformed into a luxury casino with two hotels, a banquet hall, and several restaurants.
Jomast Developments will be pouring £25 million into the project, which will see the 1960s building in Gurney Street getting a whole new exterior, massive changes to the interior, and a three storey expansion to make it the right dimensions to suit their plans. There will also be a multi-storey car park erected nearby to facilitate all the new visitors to the area, which they hope will be filling up with customers on a regular basis.
If the project is a success, local unemployment rates will fall drastically, both during the construction phase as a huge number of builders are introduced to the site and after it is completed, when croupiers, attendants, and security guards will be needed to police the casino. Several big names have already registered their interest in the site, in terms of both hotel chains and casino operators, so when the planning permission goes in later this year all eyes will be on the local council. If it is granted, construction could start early in 2013.
“This development will be of enormous benefit to Middlesbrough and the region and it will further enhance the town centre as well as creating a significant number of new jobs,” said Stuart Monk, the managing director of Jomast Developments. Not everyone is on his side, however – some think that the project will be a colossal waste of money.
Why? Quite simply, because the advent of the internet casinos has meant that these new UK developments are a case of too little, too late. This would be the only big casino north of Leeds, meaning that everyone from there up has not had access to a casino like this for a long time. That does not mean that if they want to gamble, they simply sit at home and wish – they get online, and play at one of the increasing number of popular online casino UK sites that pay out regularly and give huge jackpots. While there are a number of casinos in London available, they have also not seen the returns that were expected of them.
The scheme may see some initial success due to the influx of the curious, but once customers realise that the jackpots are not as high as they expected and they win much less often than they do online, they will soon be opting to stay on their sofas and play instead of trekking hundreds of miles for a lacklustre and inferior experience.