Rangers get planning nod for casino at Govan |
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Wed, 21 Sep 2005 20:05
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Glasgow: Rangers Football Club has secured a planning permission from the city council to build a casino and hotel complex adjacent to its Ibrox ground costing 120 million pounds.
This follows the British government's decision to allow one regional casino with Las Vegas-style play machines offering unlimited prizes.
The club has claimed that the casino and hotel complex could result in nearly 2,000 jobs. The project, which got an outline permission from the city council's planning committee, and proposed on the land beside Ibrox and the the Albion car park, includes a 140-bedroom hotel, conference and banqueting facilities, a gym and fitness centre, shops, bars, restaurants and 279 apartments. A community recreation centre, including a full-sized sports pitch, would be built on the roof of the casino housing up to 1,250 slot machines.
A council spokesman, however, clarified that the permission is at the planning level and the gambling licence and other details will have to be discussed and formalised. It also does not mean that the complex should be located at Ibrox.
The Gambling Act (2005) had provisions for unlimited number of regional casinos but this was cut down to one in the first phase. The regional casinos will be larger than the existing casinos in Britain -- 134 in number now.
Rangers Football Club is partnering with Las Vegas Sands Inc. for the project.
The club's chairman David Murray said the 168,000 sq. ft. complex could create job opportunities in the Govan area, one of the Glasgow's most deprived districts. He clarified that the club will not go ahead unless it is given the casino licence, but said the [planning] decision puts Glasgow significantly ahead of the rest of the U.K. in the race to secure the regeneration that a regional casino licence will bring.
If Glasgow is included in the shortlist, the city's licensing board will have to sift through competing applications to run the complex. The government's department of culture, media and sport is the final authority in granting the licence.
Las Vegas Sands has signed similar deals with Manchester United, Birmingham City and Sheffield United football clubs to build entertainment complexes that include regional casinos near their stadiums.
There two other proposed projects on these lines. The Scottish Conference and Exhibition Centre wants to build a casino on its grounds while a development company, in partnership with a Las Vegas hotel chain, wants to build by the riverside.
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