Southampton super casino race heats up as Grosvenor enters the battle to take ownership of the proposed super casino to be installed at the new £450m development at Southampton’s Royal Pier.
It seems Southampton is going to be the home of the UK’s latest super casino, but who is going to run the hottest show on the south coast?
It was no surprise to anyone that Damian Aspinall and his team at Aspers were the first to throw their hat into the ring, after all they operate the only two existing super casinos in the UK, and I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that more operators would join the fray, and the first of many has just revealed their hand.
Grosvenor, the UK’s biggest casino operator, has also announced plans to compete with Aspers as part of the tender process and it’s believed more operators will express an interest in the coming months.
Southampton has one of eight licenses to operate a super casino in the UK, enabling them to host up to 150 slot machines and 30 Blackjack and Poker tables.
Overseeing the construction of the £450m Royal Pier development is RPW (Southampton), a joint venture between developers Morgan Sindall Investments Ltd and the Lucent Group.
The site will contain a luxury hotel, a much bigger Mayflower Park, restaurants, clubs, a brand spanking new marina, and of course the biggest casino complex on the South coast.
If Grosvenor is successful in their bid then the casino will become their second piece of real estate in Southampton alongside the Grosvenor Casino in West Quay Road.
The new operators will be unveiled after a two-step process. In the first instance casino operators will submit bids to the council who will draw up a shortlist based on certain criteria, and then the second stage, which takes place in the Autumn, will see a panel of experts analyzing the short list before the council’s licensing committee makes the final call.
It’s expected that the race for the Southampton license will be the most competitive fight the UK has seen.
