Spain could revise its taxation laws to encourage Las Vegas Sands to build its mega-casino “Euro Vegas” complex in the country, Treasury Minister Cristobal Montoro said last month. “Spain has the same tributary laws as anyone, subject to European norms.
But in the future these norms, of course, could be revised, modified, to attract investment,” Montoro told Parliament.
LVS is looking at Spain’s two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, as potential sites for the 12-hotel, six-casino complex, which has prompted controversy stemming from the company’s requests for free use of public and private lands, government investment in infrastructure to support the complex, and 10 years of tax breaks. A recent report in El Pais said the company also wants a loosening of labor laws, lower social security payments, relaxed smoking laws and the creation of university degrees in casino management.
In return, LVS is considering an investment of up to €15 billion over 10 years in the complex, which as currently planned could include some 36,000 hotel rooms and 18,000 slot machines.
LVS Chief Operating Officer Michael Leven said in a recent interview in El Mundo that the company is 90 percent sure it would bring the project to Spain.
The prospects have excited cash-strapped politicians who are facing massive unemployment and shrinking revenue from an economy sliding into its second recession in three years.
