Sands may build casino in Scotland

Gabrielle Monaghan

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005 | 9:44 a.m.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. won planning permission to build the U.K.'s only "super casino" in a deprived part of Glasgow, Scotland, as Britain opens up its gambling market.

The Ibrox Sands Entertainment Complex will be situated near Rangers Football Club Plc's stadium and will cost about 120 millions pounds ($217 million), the soccer club said in a statement Tuesday. Council spokesman Jim Clark today confirmed that permission was granted to build the casino in the Govan area of Scotland's largest city.

Las Vegas Sands, the world's largest casino operator by value, is pursuing expansion in Singapore, Macau and the U.K. as sales fall in its home city. It's seeking a license to open a casino in a complex next to Manchester United's Old Trafford soccer stadium in an effort to become the operator of the U.K.'s first super casino following further deregulation of the market in April.

"The decision puts Glasgow significantly ahead of the rest of the U.K. in the race to secure the regeneration that a regional casino license will bring," Rangers Chairman David Murray said in the statement.

The U.K. government cut the number of casino licenses available in the country to help pass new legislation governing gambling before the May 5 election. Under the compromise, the number of super casinos with no-limit slot machines was cut from eight to one.

The government is also considering similar proposals for a super casino for the Millennium Dome in southeast London, for football stadiums including one owned by Newcastle United, as well as from more than 20 operators that want to build a super casino in Blackpool, northwest England.

The proposed Las Vegas-style casino in Glasgow would be part of a 200 million-pound development that Rangers, Scotland's record 50-time league champion, is building. The sports and leisure complex next to Ibrox Stadium will also house a club store, restaurants, cafes, bars, a community center, a fitness suite and a roof-top community soccer pitch.

The site won planning permission after Las Vegas Sands pledged to offer people from Govan the chance to apply for at least half the 2,000 jobs that may be created from the development. The complex's employees will be offered training at a local college. Rangers said the development will spark the regeneration of Govan and create 290 new homes.

Govan, the birthplace of Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson, became dilapidated following the demise of the shipyards on Glasgow's River Clyde. About 14 percent of the area's residents are unemployed, almost twice the average for all of Glasgow.

Glasgow, a city of 600,000 people, is home to Scotland's poorest districts and has Britain's lowest life expectancy. Workers in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital 40 miles to the east, earn 5 percent more a week than Glaswegians and can expect to live five years longer. Glasgow Rangers and archrival Celtic, together known as the Old Firm, dominate Scottish soccer, having won the title every year since 1985.

Las Vegas Sands opened the first western casino in the Chinese city of Macau last year and may spend $2.75 billion on a Venetian casino resort in the former Portuguese colony. In Singapore, the company plans to build an 852-room hotel, a convention center and an arena if it wins a license to run a casino in the city-state.