Gran Scala

Gran Scala and the Spanish law

The proposed ‘Gran Scala law’ will contain more legal guarantees than any other piece of local legislation from the past 30 years, Aragon’s vice-president José Angel Biel said this week as the government confirmed the completion of a law to oversee the development of the resort complex.

Biel’s announcement followed several months of protracted delays since Aragonese government officials and private investors first unveiled plans to build a Spanish ‘Las Vegas’ in the Monegros desert at the November 2007 G2E exhibition, held in the actual Las Vegas in Nevada.

In Las Vegas, representatives from the newly-formed, London-based consortium International Leisure Development (ILD) then said they hoped to encourage the development of a resort complex that would include 32 casinos, six theme parks and 70 hotels, effectively establishing Gran Scala as the world’s third largest resort destination after Vegas and Orlando, Florida. Speaking exclusively to GamblingCompliance last year, ILD spokesman Christian Collus predicted that construction on the resort would begin this year.

However, the project has since been delayed by the worsening global economic situation, unsubstantiated doubts raised in the local media as to the financing capacity of ILD, and environmental concerns that have seen one political grouping in the Aragonese parliament call upon the European Commission to investigate the project before a final site for the development had even been chosen.

The final law still requires approval in Aragon’s regional parliament, but it is thought that the two main PP and PSOE political groupings will back the proposal that states that the government may only authorise the development of a leisure resort complex where it can guarantee the creation of a minimum of 3,000 jobs.

But even with a law now ready, the global financial crisis has amplified the doubts surrounding the economic viability of ILD’s ambitious plans, especially given the financing difficulties that have engulfed other resort casino projects around the world since Gran Scala’s conception.

Last year, Nevada-based gaming heavyweight Las Vegas Sands was forced to suspend its developments in Macau in order to ensure completion of its Marina Bay Sands casino resort in Singapore. Closer to home meanwhile, Harrah’s Entertainment has shelved the development of the Caesar’s casino it has been planning to build in the considerably smaller-scale ‘Reino de Don Quijote’ leisure resort complex in the Spanish region of Castilla La Mancha.

With the high cost of credit leaving the more prominent Nevada-based casino operators in perilous financial difficulty, many will question whether Gran Scala will ever break ground, let alone attract globally-recognised casino operators to develop over 30 themed casino venues.

Under the proposed legislation, a resort developer such as ILD would be required to meet certain minimum capital requirement just to be eligible to apply for permission to develop a resort. The developer will also be required to submit a series of multi-million euro guarantees as its application is considered by government agencies, Biel said, as well as hand over a 10 percent equity stake to the Aragonese government to ensure continuing official oversight of the project. The government will be able to impose fines ranging between €30-600,000 should its demands not be met by the developer, Biel added.

“Once this law has been passed, no single legal project in Aragon in the past 30 years will have contained so many legal guarantees,” Aragon’s vice-president said.

Addressing the Spanish casino regulations, the government’s proposal will not immediately alter Aragon’s existing gaming laws, but instead allow for the authorities to issue further rules at a later date to regulate gambling activities that will take place in the resort casinos that ILD wants to see installed within Gran Scala.

According to Biel, the Aragonese government will be able to dictate the maximum number of casinos that may be incorporated as part of the resort development, as well as set further rules on opening hours, prizes and security systems. A specialist compliance unit will also be set up by the government to regulate the casinos’ operations, he added.

ILD, which includes representatives from gaming machine technology supplier Aristocrat alongside 11 other groups, told Spanish news agency EFE that it welcomed the government’s announcement of the finalised legislation, adding that it would continue with its development plans once the law has been approved in parliament.

The consortium announced in February that it had finally acquired options over a parcel of land in the Aragonese municipality of Otiñena for the proposed site of the Gran Scala project. ILD maintains that the first stage of the resort’s development, which will include ten casinos, should be completed by 2012.

Source: gamblingcompliance.com

abril 22, 2009 - Publicado por Granscalina | English | Gran Scala