A Company which hopes to open a casino in a GBP 27million entertainment development in the heart of Aberdeen has applied for its gaming licence to be renewed.

Representatives from Grosvenor Casinos will today ask members of the city’s licensing board to extend it for another year even although the casino, earmarked for the City Wharf leisure and shopping centre on Shiprow, has not been built.

The licence was initially awarded in January 2006 and hailed as an important step for the entire project because the casino would be the „anchor“ required to encourage other businesses to get on board.

Kenmore Aberdeen, the firm behind the development, pledged in January that construction work would begin this month.

Work was supposed to start last year after the original gaming licence was awarded.

The development, which also includes the refurbishment of the NCP car park on Shiprow, aims to transform a rundown area of the city, and will include a 107-bedroom Ibis Hotel.

Some 30,000sq ft of office space and five bar and restaurant units will also be constructed.

The project is expected to create 400 full-time jobs and 60 part-time posts.

More than 100 of those jobs will be in the Grosvenor Casino, which will have a 16-table games room with 20 jackpot machines, a sports bar, restaurant, card-playing room and a 75-space car park.