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Plans for giant casino complex in Spain collapse
It was predicted that the project could have created up to 250,000 jobs
Protestors attend a demonstration in Madrid in March 2012 against the Eurovegas project
A plan to create a giant casino complex - called Eurovegas - near Maid has collapsed after disagreements between the developer and Spanish authorities.
US casino operator Las Vegas Sands has pulled out of the €21 billion project which included six casinos, 12 hotels and many shops.
Directly and indirectly the project was supposed to create up to 250,000 posts, in what was regarded as an important selling point in Spain where the jobless rate currently stands at 27%.
However Spanish authorities would not agree to several demands from the US company in charge for developing the project.
Las Vegas Sands wanted the government to insure it against future changes in policy which could damage the resort's profitability, as well as a lower tax on gambling.
There was also a disagreement over smoking at the resort, with Las Vegas Sands asking for the resort to be exempted from Spanish rules on smoking.
"New conditions were put forward concerning taxes and legal protection ... which could not be taken on board by the administrations involved," Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said
"The government needs to preserve the general interests of all Spaniards," she said.
In a statement, Las Vegas Sands chief executive Sheldon Adelson said: "While the government and many others have worked diligently on this effort, we do not see a path in which the criteria needed to move forward with this large-scale development can be reached.
"Developing integrated resorts in Europe has been a vision of mine for years, but there is a time and place for everything and right now our focus is on encouraging Asian countries, like Japan and Korea, to amatically enhance their tourism offering through the development of integrated resorts there."
Maid was selected as the location for the resort after a long battle with Barcelona, which also coveted the investment.
The casino complex has been opposed by several groups, including the Roman Catholic Church, which argued the development would encourage prostitution and crime.
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My international network of (s)pies inform me that these investors, rather than Macau are heading full speed for Filfla. My (s)pies, working on part time basis, have been trying to flog the IIP at them (on the quiet of course, I did not want Xmun or FZD to find out). I will discreetly inform Xmun that these investors are after land/sea reclamation projects (x'gharukasa), and intent to dredge up some bombs as well as rock from the Filfla depths. That should please Jason. He might want to do something similar at Fekruna with those wartime bombs when next in office.
