According to the Las Vegas Sun, MGM Mirage has entered into
a joint venture with a UK entertainment company, Earls Court
and Olympia Group, to develop a casino and entertainment complex
in the heart of London if the deregulation of gambling proceeds
as expected in Britain.
The partnership would transform the Olympia Exhibition Center,
a "major icon" in London, into a casino complex
with shopping, restaurants and bars. MGM Mirage has not yet
calculated its total investment in the project, but the proposal
calls for an initial investment of more than 150 million British
pounds (about $254 million).
"We are committed to the U.K. and anticipate spending
a substantial amount of money in that market if the business
conditions are what we hope they will be," says James
Murren,
MGM Mirage's chief financial officer.
(In May, the company announced it had acquired a stake in
a British casino developer, Metro Casinos, with a casino under
construction in Bristol.) The London casino is contingent
upon the adoption of deregulated gambling laws, a reduction
in gaming taxes as part of those proposals and local permit
approvals. Analysts have predicted the implementation of new
gambling rules by 2005 or 2006.
