Las Vegas Sands aims to start Madrid mega-casino in 2013

"They are negotiating with the banks, which already have made some offers," the source said. "They have the financing, it is just a question of seeing which bank lends them the money most cheaply."

The region hopes the mega-casino will create tens of thousands of jobs in a country grappling with an unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent. Opponents complain that public money will be used for a private project while Spaniards are suffering from cuts in public services. A protest group, Eurovegas No, said it would demonstrate in Madrid later Tuesday.

Critics fear the casinos will spawn prostitution and crime, and a return to the excesses of Spain's property bubble, which imploded in 2008 triggering a double recession.

Las Vegas Sands, the world's biggest casino company by market value, has said it will provide up to 35 percent of the funding itself for the first phase, which it said will cost 6.8 billion euros (us$ 8.9 billion).

The company operates The Venetian and The Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, as well as properties in Macao. It chose Madrid over Barcelona for the project after months of talks with the two competing cities. The source said on Tuesday the company had not yet indicated where in the Madrid region it would build the complex.