$30m Spanish EuroVegas Plans Shelved

$30m Spanish EuroVegas Plans Shelved

Tuesday, 17 December 2013

The proposed $30 billion EuroVegas casino development which was due to built in the outskirts of Madrid has been scrapped.

US casino groups Las Vegas Sands confirmed the news on Friday saying that it was no longer in the best interests of its shareholders.

"We have reiterated time and again that our internal development process would dictate the outcome of a proposed development in Spain,” said Las Vegas Sands Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sheldon G. Adelson. “That process has been extremely thorough and while the government and many others have worked diligently on this effort, we do not see a path in which the criteria needed to move forward with this large-scale development can be reached. As a result we will no longer be pursuing this opportunity.”

Initial plans submitted in August included provisions for six casinos and 12 hotels as well as a host of shops and theatres as well as parking spaces for up to 40,000 cars.

Despite the prospect of a boost in tourism and 250,000 new jobs the development ran into stiff opposition from religious and political groups. Anti-tobacco campaigners also opposed the plans after Adelson called for the resort to be exempt from no smoking laws.

According to the Spanish government, negotiations finally ground to halt after Sands demanded legal and financial guarantees that ran contrary to Spanish and European Union law.

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said, "New conditions were put forward concerning taxes and legal protection ... which could not be taken on board by the administrations involved."

Sands will now be turning its attention towards the Asian market.

“Developing integrated resorts in Europe has been a vision of mine for years, but there is a time and place for everything and right now our focus is on encouraging Asian countries, like Japan and Korea, to dramatically enhance their tourism offering through the development of integrated resorts there," Adelson added.



Tags: Sheldon Adelson, EuroVegas, Spain