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UK
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20 May 2005
United's Chances Of Super Casino
Remote
The
head of casinos at Stanley Leisure yesterday dismissed the
chances of Manchester United securing the only UK super
casino as "extremely remote."
His comments came as US
gaming giant Las Vegas Sands announced it would invest
£218m in its proposed venture with the football club to
build near Old Trafford.
Michael Riddy, of
Liverpool-based Stanley, the UK's biggest casino operator,
said: "The hot favourite is Blackpool. When the (gaming)
bill went through there were MPs and Lords on all sides of
the house who kept on mentioning Blackpool.
"So I would be very
surprised if it was going to end up in
Manchester."
A late amendment in the
Gambling Act means only one regional super casino will be
built in the UK. Sixteen other licences will be granted to
build eight large and eight small casinos.
United's plans include a
luxury five star hotel, restaurants, health club, sports bar
and a regional casino on the Trafford Park side of the
ground.
"It will be a lifestyle
centre themed around Manchester United," said Las Vegas
Sands president and chief operating officer William
Weidner.
The US firm, which is also
vying to build a £1bn casino in Singapore, will pay for
the entire cost of the UK project.
Stanley was originally
looking at a number of sites for its own super casino and
said it was now keen to win the potential Blackpool
licence.
Mr Riddy added: "When we
thought there were going to be eight regionals, we were keen
to get as many of those as possible.
"We were certainly hopeful
of getting maybe two and at that stage the sites that we
would have been most interested in were in Leeds and in
Birmingham."
He added that other
changes to the gaming laws would help increase
profits.
"There is an archaic rule
at the moment that, if you join a casino, you have to wait
24 hours before you can gamble. That will go. We're also
going to be allowed more jackpot (fruit)
machines."
Related pages:
Manchester
United Casino With Vegas
Sands
UK
Casino Deal May Complicate Glazer's
Plan
Glazer
In Talks With Casino Mogul
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