This week, The UK casino operator Rank Group has found its place in Belfast City Council, however, its desire to settle down in Northern Ireland still remains a proposition that is under question, at least for the moment. Rank Group, that is currently the biggest casino operator in UK and that is eager to conquer the Northern Ireland casino market, asked the “important” question on Tuesday and demonstrated its courtly behaviour towards the capital’s councilors.
Rank announced that the appearing of the new facility in Belfast will help for the creation of more than 280 jobs, for the functioning of the bars, restaurants, live theater, cinema, auditorium and of course for the gaming floor. Rank’s group strategy director Dan Waugh explained to the News Letter that their plan was to create the “physical attributes” of the place attractive enough for people who do not live here. This will serve as an excellent net profit for the local economy.
Despite the fact that Waugh pointed out that its desired location was the north foreshore of Belfast Lough, this proposal is still to be discussed. Waugh announced that the intent of Rank Group was to reveal its plans and to understand whether Northern Ireland welcomed or did not accepted this.
According to the politicians, the opinion on this question varies. The council’s Alderman Tom Ekin explained that the council remained neutral on this question. Rank had shown the great part of the advantages of this proposal, however the council was still relatively reluctant to accept it. However Ekin said that Council wanted to have more information and that further information will be revealed after some time. Looking at the bright side, Ekin thinks that as people from Northern Ireland have the possibility to access without difficulty the online gambling sites that lack theatres, cinema and other interesting places, the idea of building a casino is by all means not inappropriate one.
The Minister of Social Development Nelson McCausland made a dramatic turn with announcing that he wasn’t exactly sure what are Rank’s intentions. The Minister has been occupied with the preparation of a revised gambling law, which to show to the legislative assembly and he claims that Rank had decided not to attend the discussion. According to McCausland, casinos are not included in the plan for the new gambling laws and in addition to this the Minister said that as for the Rank Group, it was too late for their settlement in Northern Ireland.
Five casino operators are still in the battle for the place of the new super casino in Southampton. However until June 2015, there wouldn’t appear a final decision on this question. In this way there would be enough time for Genting UK, Aspers , Rank subsidiary Global Gaming Venture, Kymeira Casinoand and Grosvenor to wait impatiently for the decision. Around all the hunts, the local council had asked the fab five to explain in details if there existed a guarantee that passers by won’t be able to observe the gambling from the street, a statement that raises another question – can a casino without windows function in a normal way?
