Despite reluctance on the part of politicians to allow gaming properties on such a scale, there could still be a market for super casinos in the UK, it has been claimed.
In 2008, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown vetoed plans to develop a super casino in the city of Manchester that, under the 2005 Gambling Act, was to have a gaming floor of around 5,000sq.m and as many as 1,250 slot machines.
Now, only the eight large and eight small casinos, permitted to offer up to 150 and 80 slot machines respectively, are to be developed.
The first of these large licence holders, Aspers Casino at Westfield Stratford City, close to the Olympic Park in London, is to open in December.
“It’s all down to location, location, location,” Aspers COO Richard Noble told InterGaming. “Large licences in highly populated areas, such as London, absolutely make sense but in smaller, less populated areas, some of the eight large and eight small properties will struggle to achieve the volumes required to make these projects sustainable.”
Strategically placed super casinos, however, would offer new opportunities for the UK gaming market to further develop its entertainment offering, he said.
“We are able to offer entertainment with our existing properties, but we don’t have 1,000-seat auditoriums to bring the big shows to town or the convention centres and those sorts of things that you could include with a super casino,” Noble explained. “I think it is a real shame that at the moment the UK has said it doesn’t want properties like this.”
To read the full interview with Richard Noble of Aspers, look out for the forthcoming December issue of InterGaming.
