Supplier News
Spain – Gran Casino de La Mancha opens in Illescas
By Phil - 3 October 2016
The Gran Casino de La Mancha has now opened in the town of Illescas in the province of Toledo.
The casino rolled out the red carpet for a number of local dignitaries and celebrities who were present to celebrate the launch including the city mayor José Manuel Tofiño.
The casino encompasses a space of 2,900 square metres of which 1,005 metres is dedicated to gaming. The casino is divided into three floors and also houses a VIP area as well as a restaurant and café.
A total of €3m has been invested in the casino which will provide around 90 to 120 new jobs. As well as housing 52 slot machines and two electronic roulette tables the casino also houses 26 tables which offer a wide variety of games including American roulette as well as Texas hold ’em, pai gow and Caribbean stud poker. The town is around fifteen minutes away from the Cobo Calleja industrial estate, which is considered to be one of the largest Chinese business premises in Europe, and the casino is aimed largely at an Asian clientel.
Director of the casino José Luis Morencia, explained that the city was ideally suited to a new casino due to the absence of any similar leisure centres of its kind in the north of the province of Toledo.
The project which is operated by the Grupo Ballesteros, the Valladolid, Spain-based operator and casino businessman Sánchez Colilla, was first announced in March after the Governing Council of Castilla-La Mancha authorised the opening of a new casino in the town. Sánchez Colilla operates a total of eight gaming establishments in Spain and already has four casinos in the autonomous region of Castilla-La Mancha.
The first casino opened in April 2014 in Cuenca and six months later the group opened the casino in Guadalajara. Further openings followed in 2015 in Talavera de la Reina and in Puertollano. After the initial announcement Sánchez Colilla revealed that the Gran Casino de La Mancha would be the company’s biggest project so far with the aim being to attract players from Toledo and southern Madrid. Grupo Ballesteros meanwhile operates more than 20 bingo halls throughout Spain.
José Luis Morencia said that it was a good time to invest and described the new investment as “a bet on the future”.
Meanwhile Minister for Finance and Public Administration for Castilla-La Mancha Juan Alfonso Ruiz Molina, described the launch as “a great day for Castilla-La Mancha” as it marked the beginning of a project which would help improve the economy and would generate jobs in an area where unemployment was high. “The richer we are in Castilla-La Mancha, the more wealth may be redistributed by the government amongst those who have less,” he said.
