Sheldon Andelson is a Las Vegas businessman behind massive global casino and entertainment complexes including Las Vegas Sands, The Venetian and Sands Singapore. He is gathering a $17bn investment for the EuroVegas project that will create an adults playground in Europe, Spain to be precise.
The big dilemma is which city will be host to the 36,000 hotel rooms, 12 hotel casino resorts, shopping malls, golf courses, resturants and theatres. The two main cities in Spain, Madrid and Barcelona are fighting it out between themselves and a decision is due to be made in September 2012.
The Sands in Singapore
The whole idea of a EuroVegas, a Las Vegas style resort that is accessible for Europe and Asia, is not a new one. The Gran Scala project was announced 5 years ago and was on track to be the EuroVegas, but those plans were shelved when the world fell into the huge economic crisis of the last 3 years.
There is opposition to the planned project mainly for environmental reasons. Any development of this scale will mean a loss of large areas of what is currently green belt land. Locals say it will also attract the wrong kind of people and increase crime and prostitution. However on the other hand it will boost spains struggling economy, huge numbers of tourists will visit every year and over 230,000 jobs will be created.
I will post again soon when there is more news on the debate.