Beautiful casino megaprojects such as the Kingdom of Don Quixote, Gran Scala and Eurovegas have never seen the light of day in Spain. Casino Barcelona World, on the other hand, supports a thread of hope that is becoming more and more fragile. Why? There are no specific reasons for such a fiasco, but there are similar business strategies that could lead to bankruptcy. Another reason that may have affected the giants is the decline in people’s interest in visiting gambling establishments, as online gambling clubs are always close at hand. For example, you can play the best games of chance by simply clicking on this link – www.casinonic.com/en-AU/games/top. Anyway, let’s look at each casino separately.
Kingdom of Don Quixote project in Ciudad Real
The Kingdom of Don Quixote project was presented in 2005. This casino was to have an area of 10,000 square meters, a luxury hotel, a theater for 3,000 spectators, a golf course, 7,000 rooms and 7,000 permanent jobs. For seasonal work should have involved 11,000 workers. This casino received funding from gaming giant Caesars, which was supposed to operate the casino under the Harrah brand. It would be Las Vegas at Ciudad Real.
Negotiations are deadlocked and deadlines have not been met. On December 1, 2011, a meeting of shareholders declared bankruptcy. Caesars said it lost $ 27.1 million on the project.
The Don Quixote project has always been associated with another fiasco – Don Quixote airport. The total debt amounts to 200 million euros. Sergio Alvarez, chairman of the shareholders’ council, then told the local newspaper La Tribuna de Ciudad Real that his aim was to attract investors, seek funding and promote the project.
Gran Scala project between Zaragoza and Huesca
In December 2007, the government of Aragon introduced the Gran Scala project. The promotion company was International Leisure Development (ILD), which promised 32 casinos, seven theme parks, hotels for 25,000 guests, 250 stores, 26,000 direct jobs and nearly 65,000 seasonal workers. In total, investments amounted to 17,000 million euros.
The place chosen for the development of the Grand Scale project was the Monegros desert, located between Zaragoza and Huesca. To implement this project, 4,000 hectares of land were needed.
Due to such a large area, plots were acquired from individuals. The conditions were as follows: the owners received a deposit of 4 to 10%. If the investor has not paid the balance before February 2012, the land has been returned to the owners. And so, it happened. International Leisure Development did not pay the balance and the project itself only remained on paper.
Eurovegas project in Madrid
In 2010, Las Vegas Sands became interested in opening a mega-casino complex in Europe. The owner of this business is billionaire Sheldon Adelson. The location of the future casino has been envisaged in Barcelona or Madrid. Adelson said that Spain was the most suitable place to host his “Gambling Eden”. He planned an investment of 18 million euros. 250,000 thousand permanent and seasonal jobs, 12 hotels and restaurants with the capacity to serve 50,000 people, several golf courses and 6 casinos with a large area.
Two years later, it was decided that the casino would be located in the Spanish capital. Three options were considered: Paracuellos del Jarama, Valdecarros and Alcorcon. The latter was chosen as the location.
Everything seemed to be going well, but delays, changes in the initial figures and requests for changes to the laws began to appear. Thus, until 2013, after the resignation of Espérance Aguirre, the project collapsed.
So why did these megaprojects close?
The main groups opposed to the implementation of casino megaprojects were the left parties, environmental associations and anti-gambling organizations. And the arguments are:
• Environmental impact: this is a model contrary to sustainable development.
• Economic specialization based on the game.
• Increase negative values.
• The emergence of a marginal environment: drugs, mafia and prostitution.
• Low-skilled workforce.
• Changes in the laws: the projects required changes in the law to meet the interests of the investor. For example, the government of Aragon has approved the law on large capacity leisure centers. For Eurovegas, the tobacco law had to be changed and, in the case of Barcelona Word, a tax reduction was approved.
