News has been coming thick and fast ever since the first announcement of a mega casino resort to be developed in Los Monegros between the cities of Zaragoza and Huesca in northeast Spain. The quiet rural area is apparently to be transformed into a Las Vegas style destination resort over the next decade by international investment consortium International Leisure Development (ILD).

The Aragon government are said to have been working on the plan together with the investors since last January but since the news broke various groups have been determined to have their say. Capital investment may exceed €17 billion and provide as many as 62,500 jobs but opposition to the scheme is already being marshalled. Apudepa (an association for the defence of Aragon’s heritage) has declared its complete rejection of the project on the grounds of it being contra to sustainable development, favouring speculation and causing climate change.

The politicians are also making their views known. The Izquierda Unida party has said it is to complain to the European Commission that the ‘Gran Scala’ plan would lead to a detrimental urbanisation of Aragon without ecological guarantees or benefits for local residents. The governing party points out that planned investment will bring around €600 million annually in tax revenue. Being a rural area, any new jobs created in Los Monegros would mostly be filled by an influx of workers from other Spanish regions and EU member states.

The Mayor of Zaragoza has recommended caution until all relevant details of the plan are known. So far it has been suggested that the arid steppes will become the location of as many as 32 casino hotels and five or six theme parks. Mayor Juan Alberto Belloch commented that Zaragoza is within 300 kilometres of Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Bilbao, cities where 20 million Spaniards with the greatest purchasing power live. The Gran Scala investors seem to have done their homework.

Aragon does not actually permit casinos under its constitution but this appears to be a minor detail for the government, which plans to pass the necessary amendments to clear the way for the huge project. The promoters of a proposed ‘Spyland’ theme park at Gran Scala have said that Spain offers lower development costs, a co-operative government and lower wage costs than some other countries.

At the recent annual convention of the Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions in Orlando it was revealed that major ILD shareholders in the joint venture to develop the 2,000 hectare Los Monegros project include Aristocrat Technologies and UFA Insurance. Officials from the Zaragoza region and the Aragon Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism attended the convention to show support for the future entertainment destination. (E-11.27.07)

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