In the United States Ameristar Casinos Inc. has six casinos and prides itself on offering a total entertainment experience with the highest quality guest service. It is hoping to take these attributes across the Atlantic to Southampton in the South of England. In a press statement released today, December 14, the company announces plans to develop a Regional Casino in the port city.

The day before came news that Ameristar had received approval for the purchase of its seventh casino in the US, the Mountain High Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado. The sale of the property, owned by Windsor Woodmont Black Hawk Resort Corporation, was ordered by the Bankruptcy Court in Denver and the figure approved was for $115 million in cash and $2.4 million in assumed debt.

Ameristar in Southampton, together with Bravo Network Limited, will seek to be one of the eight regional casino projects to be licensed after the UK Gambling Bill is made law. The project, in addition to the casino, includes a 200-room 4-star hotel with conference facilities, restaurants and entertainment venues, and other leisure amenities. Bravo Network will also develop an Olympic-size ice rink, a smaller leisure ice rink, and an 8.000 seat state-of-the-art multi-purpose indoor arena.

The two companies have a budget of some £240 million for the project, which includes a substantial investment by Ameristar for the arena and leisure facilities. Southampton City Council has already selected Bravo Network as the arena developer for the regeneration of the West Quay area of Southampton. The proposed site has been vacant for years and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) is reported to have welcomed the plans for the leisure destination. It is envisaged that the casino floor area will cover 65,000 sq ft and house 80 table games and the permitted maximum of 1,250 slot machines.

Craig H. Neilsen, Chairman and CEO of Ameristar, has said that the project will create 1,200 quality jobs and stimulate the local economy through purchases of goods and services from local and regional businesses. SEEDA has declared the project to be both innovative and complementary to other regeneration activity currently taking place in Southampton.

It will be some time before prospective investors in the British casino market are able to discover the relevant terms and tax conditions for entry. The final Gambling Bill may contain clauses that will see some, or all, of the grandiose plans springing up all over the country being abandoned. Ameristar will have to wait to see if their innovative architecture will get to grace the Southampton waterfront skyline, or their state-of-the-art casino floors bring some US glamour to the city’s entertainment scene.

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