The news has been spectacularly announced this week that Sheldon Adelson has chosen Madrid to be the location of his new EuroVegas casino resort area, a massive and ambitious project that, if it succeeds, could just help to bail our European neighbours out of that financial crisis that they have managed to get themselves into. But what does this means for an online casino in UK, and how are the rejected Barcelona taking the news?
The answer to the second question is, quite lightly. In fact, the Catalonian government in Barcelona have just released details of their own project that will rival EuroVegas, a €4.8 billion development that will feature a casino, hotel, and shopping mall in order to attract people to this area as well. Historically there has been much rivalry between the powerful cities of Madrid and Barcelona, and it looks as though this is set to continue with both ambitious projects will take a lot of investments to build and a lot of tourist visitors to make them worthwhile.
Adelson has already placed severe conditions on his decision to place EuroVegas near Madrid: he says that he will not go ahead with it unless the euro stabilises, and that he will also put in no more than thirty five per cent of the funds, leaving other investors to take up the slack – and, if those were not enough, he also demands that planning laws in the area be changed in order to allow him to develop faster. It looks likely that Madrid will bow to all of these requirements if they can, since the cash injection that such a tourist attraction will provide would be absolutely essential for the growth of the economy.
When all is said and done, it is somewhat unlikely that casinos in London will be adversely affected by these new rivals on the continent. After all, there are plenty of reasons to visit both the UK and Spain already that have nothing to do with casinos, and with a long road ahead of both casino developers before the projects reach fruition it could be some time before we actually see any results. Will the Spanish economy even last long enough to see the completion of these new complexes? We will have to wait and see, as only someone with a crystal ball would be able to predict this one.