The bill of high capacity leisure centres, created in response to the leisure and gambling complex Gran Scala that International Leasure Development (ILD) aims to install in Ontiñena (Huesca), will demand promoters to this kind of developments to have a share capital of 10 million euros and hand in a guarantee.

The government of the Spanish region of Aragon has declared an intention to publish a new law to pave the way for the creation of Gran Scala, the Las Vegas-type entertainment city in the desert areas of Aragon. The location of Gran Scala is land between Madrid and Zaragoza, covering 2,000 hectares and it will contain a huge entertainment complex of shops, houses, golf courses, theme parks, family entertainment centres, sporting attractions and 32 casinos.

International Leisure Development (ILD) promised tonight in Ontiñena (Huesca) invest more than 1,300 million and create about 200,000 direct and indirect jobs in the leisure complex and gambling Gran Scala, which will begin implementation in 2012 thanks to the "well received" by the Government of Aragon. The complex, which recreates "Las Vegas style", will have a high-speed train(AVE) stop and well connections, said promoter Paul Stephan Allegrini in statements to the media.

More than 30 entities and associations that signed the document “No to Gran Scala Project” demanded a formal interview with each of the five parliamentary groups of Aragón Courts (Socialist Party, Popular Party, Aragon Party, Aragon Board and Izquierda Unida). These groups, belonging to different spaces and social environments –educational, legal, environmental, social- want to explain their position and deliver a document as a political thought...

Gran Scala, the hugely ambitious mega-resort earmarked for the desert region of Aragón, Spain, will become European "most important" amusement and tourism destination, according to developers. Pegged for a first-phase opening in the second quarter of 2010, Gran Scala will occupy 2,025 hectares in Los Monegros, which lies approximately 320 kilometres east of Madrid.

The European Union (EU) does not know if Gran Scala project will really come true, so it does not believe it is necessary, for the moment, to investigate if it fits in with legality in every aspect. The EU has made that statement after the political party Izquierda Unida (IU) asked this large leisure project planned for Spain to be watched by European authorities. IU spokesman in the Court of Aragón, Adolfo Barrena, talked before the Commission of Petitions of the Euro Chamber.

Promoters of Gran Scala has 1,700 of the 2,000 hectares necessary to carry on the project. They also assure that they already have a guarantee of 20 million euros asked by the Government of Aragón. Besides, they assure that the project is working properly, but the inauguration will be delayed between two and four months because they still do not have all the necessary land for the complex.

Gran Scala project, known as the “Las Vegas of Monegros”, which is aimed to be built in the Aragon desert, as a mega leisure and gaming complex which has not been cancelled yet, but its postponement seems to be quite long. Promoters of the project have not placed the 20 million euros of guarantee which the autonomous government had suggested in order to stop with the growing claims of the citizens. Although the deadline expires last Saturday, Vice-President José Ángel Biel has asked to calm down and not to be inflexible with the dates, due to the importance of the project.

Central government is concluding the report it will issue to the European Commission, demanded by US head of Environment, Stavros Dimas, on Gran Scala project. According to the government, documents will be issued to Brussels in the right deadline, but it will not happen this week, as expected by Izquierda Unida, because official sources said that the deadline to send the data to the European entity has not concluded yet.

The inauguration date scheduled for the first phase of the leisure project Gran Scala has not changed. For International Leisure Development (ILD), the announcement of the vicepresident of Aragon government, José Ángel Biel, on a possible delay in the beginning of the construction until the beginning of 2009 “is not a problem”. The same source has said that “ILD has considered, according to its calculations...

International Leisure Development (ILD), the pool of companies that promotes Gran Scala complex, signed the first definite agreement with a gambling company in order to manage a casino hotel in Los Monegros. The company is Novomatic, located in Austria. The agreement was signed last week in London, a city in which ILD has a venue, in which executives developed last week intensive negotiations with operators of the gambling sector within International Casino Exhibition 2008 (ICE).

While eight agreements with international operators have already been confirmed for Gran Scala complex, ILD company aims to conclude the rest of the agreements in London, between January 22-26, within ICE. International Leisure Development (ILD), promoter of the complex than includes a theme park, tourism and leisure, has concluded agreements with eight groups of the sector to be in charge of other hotel casino projects, according to sources of the pool of companies.