Super casinos, Glas Vegas

[Apollo]

Started down in the Blackpool thread, but I spotted this news item on casinos that's a bit more detailed on home coverage, and Glasgow Council's efforts:

Plans to create a number of super-casinos in Glasgow were brought to a grinding halt when the government pulled back on the number of regional venues, reducing them from eight to two. It is thought that London and the English seaside resort of Blackpool will be the preferred locations. But that has not stopped Glasgow City Council pushing for the legislation to be amended and there is now hope that this might happen. Alternatively, the city wants to be ready if a "phase 2" is given the go-ahead later. It is estimated that a super-casino could generate £200 million a year for the west of Scotland economy and provide 4,000 jobs in total. Glasgow already has 5 of Scotland's 12 normal-size casinos and planning permission has been granted for three more. Currently there are three proposals in Glasgow for super casinos (with as many as 1,250 slot machines as well as all the usual card and roulette games). These are Las Vegas Sands, attached to the Rangers Football Club grounds at Ibrox; the Kerzner International at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre; and MGM Mirage at Glasgow Harbour.

[crusty_bint]

theres quite a bit on this on SkyScraperCity.com See Glasgow Latest for a start

[ronan]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4264114.stm

[KonstantinL]

Excellent, now I can spend less time in my riverside luxery flat and waste even more money at a super casino! I hope they have parking for my Audi TT though!

Seriously, is Glasgow's Chinese population big enough to support a super casino?

[Vladimir]

Maybe its an attempt to attract Chinese immigrants, to stop our embarrasing population decline...

[JayKay]

[crusty_bint]

One of the images on SSC (see above) has blue astro turf on the roof-top pitch ...Ibrox Sands they're calling it

[KonstantinL]

Can you even imagine how many balls they'll lose if Bob Malcolm plays on this thing?

[McShad]

This will be fun... I live on Copland Road

[Sir Roger DeLodgerley]

A letter from this morning's FT:

"Sir, The financial viability of casinos depends on the simple fact that more money must be lost than won ("Glasgow raises stakes in casino competition", September 21). Therefore the Glasgow community must end up the poorer.

Part of the casino's income is likely to be remitted back to Nevada taking money out of Glasgow. Although part of the revenue will provide a number of jobs for casino staff, those jobs will be created from the losses of a larger number of Glaswegians. The chief executive of Rangers pointed out that Govan is "one of the poorest areas in Europe and unemployment levels are massive". There must be a high risk that many of the poorest will gamble their social security benefits. Even if the punters could be restricted to those with spare cash to burn, the casino industry offers no worthwhile end product or service, but its purpose is to transfer wealth to the casino operator.

If a community centre is badly needed in Govan and if a hotel, restaurants, fitness rooms and roof-top football pitch are viable propositions, could these not be developed without the need for a casino?

Alan Paul,"

Couldn't have put it more succinctly myself.

[Alycidon]

"Sir, The financial viability of casinos depends on the simple fact that more money must be lost than won ("Glasgow raises stakes in casino competition", September 21). Therefore the Glasgow community must end up the poorer.

Personally I think that this letter was written by a NIMBY with a narrow view of the whole concept. Surely the intention of having the "Super Casino", which I would assume would be a nationally (and internationally) advertised venue would be to attract punters from across the UK and mainland Europe. The vast majority of the income of Las Vegas is not drawn from the residents of Nevada but from punters attracted from all over the world. The promoters of this scheme are looking for the gambling tourist with plenty of cash to burn, there are already a few "standard" casinos and plenty of high street slot arcades (eg Nobles "Amusements") for the local population to squander their income

[Apollo]

I agree, the letter has no content of value and its motives are suspect.

I doubt any but the most unfamiliar or naive do not know that every game in a casino has the odds in favour of the house, that's their skim/profit? just the same as Tesco's (or any other business's) markup or profit.

The local population is of little or no interest to any super casino operator, their cash is already going into the bookies on the gee-gees, the lottery or whatever anyway, and it chicken feed compared to the income they would attract from tourists and and the like, who are more than keen to be parted from their cash in return for the 'entertainment' factor such places appear to hold for them.

Frankly, the attraction is beyond me, but I'd love to own a part and be taking cash from people who simply take it out of their pocket and hand it over, on the offchance they might get more back one day.

[Vladimir]

I doubt any but the most unfamiliar or naive do not know that every game in a casino has the odds in favour of the house, that's their skim/profit? just the same as Tesco's (or any other business's) markup or profit.

Exactly, so any criticism af casinos is actully a criticism of our economic system. So if you dont like casinos you cant like Tescos either. But the thing is Tesco, even if it is trying to take as much cash from us as it can while giving us as little as it can, serves an important purpose in that it supplies us with food and clothing etc. Casinos supply nothing more than a short lived thrill... Maybe casinos in Glasgow will create more services and so on, but if every metropolis/seeside town in the UK has a supercasino (and they will eventually) , there will be no particular interest in going to Glasgow, and it will eventually be on a much smaller scale than originally intended...

[Sir Roger DeLodgerley]

I think that this letter was written by a NIMBY

Not so, he gave a personal address in London.

[Apollo]

I'm not saying this really seriously, but isn't Tesco's low price food just the same for a fat foodie, anorexic or bulemic as a gambling addict? After all, they can go buy loads until their cash runs out or they steal more, and just keep sticking their fingers down the back of throats and going back for more.

Serioulsy, it would be interesting to konw how well patronised the casinos presently in Glasgow are patronised. I know on the few occasion I had to visit them on taxi service they were never what I would have called busy, though that was a few years ago now.

That said, as noted already, the super-casino isn't really after a local market, more a good pitch to throw its stall up in, and catch passing trade.