Aspers have won the contract to operate a £10 million casino in one of the UK’s newest cities. Milton Keynes will be home to the multi-national company’s latest location and it comes only months after they opened the UK’s largest casino business location adjacent to the Olympic Park. Damian Aspinall, chairman of Aspers, announced that it will be a “fantastic new addition to the area” and the licensing committee decision recognized Aspers delivered “the best operator in the best location within the best development”.
The plan is to build the casino inside the Xscape entertainment complex, which already includes a ski slope and cinema. The complex will generate around 250 jobs for local people and is expected to open in early 2013. A spokesperson for the company also told the BBC that they’ll donate around £500,000 to the council for the lifetime of the casino being there.
The venue itself will have 36,500 sq feet of space and on that there will be gaming tables, electronic slots, a restaurant and sports bar. PY Gerbeau, chief executive of owners X-Leisure, explained that he was “thrilled” by the plans, before adding: “We’re very much looking forward to welcoming the new casino.”
Casinos are becoming more-often-than-not part of the furniture at a number of entertainment-centered locations across the U.K. and this location is no different. It reflects a growing trend towards gambling becoming more accepted as a benign form of the entertainment industry.
Milton Keynes Council twice deferred the decision on a casino at Xscape and it was thought the casino could have ended up at either the city’s Stadium or the Leisure Plaza nearby. The other two companies bidding to run the business were Grosvenor Casinos and Apollo Leisure and Resorts. Aspers will now start construction on the two-floor complex with the view to completing it late this year.
