Spain: Eurovegas to give priority to local workers

In an interview with EFE, the director of Communications of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, Ron Reese, has admitted that the predisposition of the respective autonomous governments to modify certain laws will be one of the key factors to choose one city or the other. Although Eurovegas promoters have commited to prioritize the hiring of local workers, they will reserve half a dozen top management positions for foreign executives with experience in similar projects.

First of all, tycoon Sheldon Adelson tried to install the center in Barcelona, a city that he considered better positioned as a brand, but then he went to Madrid and detected that the capital city also has potential, assured the promoters of the project.

The conversations with both cities, after an initial intent aborted by the beginning of the economic crisis, were initiated at the same time in July 2011, so now Madrid and Barcelona compete under the same conditions in order to be granted which would be, according to its promoters, the greatest prívate investment in European history, with 6 billion euros to be spent in the first phase of the project, which would be inaugurated in 2016.

The project is presented as an “integrated tourist center”, where the space dedicated to casinos would be around a 2% to 4%. Besides, they remark that, in similar installations that they have in US and Singapore, just a 14% of the customers go due to gaming activities, and consider that these activities represent less than 34% of the incomes.

In order to justify custom-made laws, promoters of Eurovegas assure that the ambitious project is part of an unprecedented new industry in Spain or Europe, where, they affirm, there are no regulations for this type of developments.

One of the laws that they will demand to modify will be the one related to tobacco, to achieve that the leisure complex can have places dedicated to both smokers and non-smokers. They will also ask for an exemption to the law so underaged people can enter casinos together with an adult, as it already happens in Las Vegas, but maintaining the ban to play slots.

They will also demand another modification in regulation. They will ask for “migrant facilities” so they can incorporate directors to the company in an agile way without having to expect several months for current paperwork.

Promoters of the development have made an exhaustive market study that has already costed 10 million euros, and they calculate they will have collected all the necessary data to choose the place by June or July.

One of the key points for the decision will be the place each city offers, because one of the problems they have had on the Singapore complex was that they do not have enough space around in order to keep on expanding.

The design of the complex will not be made until the place is not known, and this task will last a year, followed by three months of construction of the first phase of the leisure center, which would not be concluded completely until 2022.