Spain plans to build casino city

Posted on August 21, 2009 by CasinoBazar

The parliament in the Spanish region of Aragon is due to approve a law that would allow the biggest entertainment and leisure complex in Europe to go ahead. The Gran Scala project proposes building casino-hotels, theme parks and a racecourse in countryside near the village of Ontinena.

Many Roman Catholics would associate casinos with deadly sins, so the response of Father Lorenzo, the 80-year-old, bespectacled priest, to plans to build a city of casinos and theme parks next to his village, is surprising. "In general I think it's a good idea," he says. "I suppose it could bring economic development. But moral development, that depends on the individual."

The plans by a company called International Leisure Development (ILD) to build Spain's answer to Las Vegas in countryside near Ontinena are strongly supported by the locals. One survey found that more than 80% of the people who live in the region favour the scheme that would see more than 30 casino hotels, a convention centre, theme parks, golf courses, a racecourse and a dog track, constructed on an area of countryside the size of 1,500 football pitches.

Source: BBC News