The UK’s latest ‘large casino’ has set a date for wowing our gaming friends in the north.
London-based Global Gaming Ventures (GGV) announced that its brand spanking new Victoria Gate Casino in Leeds will have its official grand opening on January 26. The 50k-square-foot venue will be the third-largest casino in the UK and the largest serving the north of England and Scotland.
The new casino, which occupies the top floor of the three-story Victoria Gate development, will boast 24 live gaming tables, 140 slot machines, 75 electronic gaming terminals and a 100-player poker room. The venue has a total capacity of 1,400, with a sports bar, dance club and restaurant catering to anyone all gambled out.
GGV was granted the Leeds license in 2013, beating out four other applicants, including fellow finalist Leeds United Football Club, who wanted to put a casino in Elland Road’s West Stand.
GGV’s deal with the Leeds licensing committee required it to make an upfront payment of £1m, with annual payments of £450k or 4% of gaming revenue, whichever is larger. GGV was also required to employ at least 205 full-time staff and fund a Responsible Gambling Forum. The venue reportedly received over 1k job applications by December and GGV has tapped former Gala Casino managing director Patrick Noakes to run the joint.
The UK has a troubled relationship with casinos, typically preferring them to be small, upscale, members-only facilities with a few gaming tables and very few slots. This was apparently intended to prevent those troublesome proles from gambling away the rent money, a plan that apparently went overlooked when fixed-odds betting terminals began breeding like bunnies in high street betting shops.
It was on former Labour PM Tony Blair’s watch that the plan for up to 40 ‘super casinos’ was hatched, but this was eventually scaled back to eight ‘large casino’ licenses. (It’s worth noting that in America, where a 32-oz. beverage is known as a ‘Gulp’, a gaming venue with only 140 slots wouldn’t be caught dead using the word ‘large’ in its marketing.)
However you define it, the UK is slowly getting used to the idea of less exclusionary gaming venues. The Aspers group has opened ‘large’ venues in East London and Milton Keynes and was awarded a license for a large casino in Southampton last March, beating out a number of rivals, including GGV.
