It’s been a hard blow to Spain which has seen the American magnate Sheldon Adelson’s 22 billion euros and 260 000 jobs investment project to make Madrid the European entertainment capital go up in smoke. The project has come to nothing because of tax problems and the anti smoking laws in land based casinos. Sheldon Adelson who had gone to the Spanish capital many times to try to get the Madrid Autonomous Community to be flexible on these two points but had no success and preferred to throw in the towel and to turn his attention to Asia instead.
Japan and South Korea within Adelson’s sights
The American millionaire who made his fortune in the casinos of Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore had planned to make Madrid a major entertainment destination with 6 casinos and 12 luxury hotels. However this project won’t take place because Sheldon Adelson would prefer to invest in Asia particularly in two main buoyant countries: Japan and South Korea. It must be said that this casino professional has good experience in the gambling sector particularly in Asia where his group reigns supreme in Macau (Venetian Casino, the Four Seasons, Sands Cotai Central) and in Singapore (Marina Bay Sands). Asia represents a booming market with a promising future and Sheldon Adelson would prefer to concentrate on this market rather than negotiate with the Madrid government on taxes and the anti smoking laws.This decision is a hard blow to Spain’s finances. This project could have attracted millions of visitors every year and brought in huge revenue without even taking into account the hundreds of thousands of jobs created which would have benefited the local economy. It has all been to no avail, Adelson stopped the finance and announced that he was abandoning the Eurovegas project which had been widely reported in the national and international press.
