The European Las Vegas
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/ Matthew Pitt / 30 April 2009 / Leave a comment
I'm rarely jealous of our American cousins - for one thing they can't play on Betfair but the fact they have easy access to Las Vegas does leave me with a twinge of envy.
Whilst the live poker scene in the UK is going from strength to strength, it still has a long way to go to match the choice of cash games and tournaments in 'Sin City.'
Las Vegas is a poker player's paradise, with cash games of all limits played twenty-four hours a day, big, well-structured tournaments daily and events such as the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker. There is simply nowhere like Vegas anywhere else in the world. But in the not too distant future, that will change.
Around an hour's drive from Zaragoza, Spain is the province of Huesca, situated in the Los Monegros desert and it is here that Gran Scala will soon start to take shape. International Leisure development have earmarked 2,700 hectares, that is around 1,500 football pitches of desert to build the European equivalent of the famous Las Vegas strip.
In total, over 17 billion Euros is being invested in the project which, when finished, will be home to 32 hotel-casinos, five theme parks, a golf course, horse racing track, 780 hotels, hundreds of shops, 200 restaurants and a town with 100,000 inhabitants!
Gran Scala is being billed as the "destination city of leisure for all ages" and is expected to attract over 25 million visitors each year, bringing some much needed money into the local economy through the creation of many thousands of jobs.
One of the best attributes of Gran Scala's location is the fact it is on the budget airline routes so return flights can be had for under £200, much less than half the price tickets to Las Vegas. Aso, the flight time from Manchester is less than three hours so one could literally fly out for a long weekend and be back in time for work on Monday morning after a weekend of poker, gambling and relaxation.
For many poker players, the cost and time involved in a trip to Vegas rules it out as a possible destination but the Gran Scala project could mean regular trips for even players who are on a budget.
Despite the project facing opposition from environmental groups amongst others, the first opening is expected mid-2010 with the entire project completed in its entirety by 2015. I for one can hardly contain myself!
*Update** I might stay away from the Blackjack tables though....
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External Links
Gran Scala Wikipedia Page
Gran Scala Presentation on Youtube
