Wales has now a new casino in the form of the £13m Aspers casino in Swansea and it is expected to attract 10,000 people a week and see £4.5m spent on gambling over the course of the next year.

The casino, which will employ 300 and have a gaming area of more than 45,000sq ft, is in the city centre’s Salubrious Place development.

X Factor runner-up Ray Quinn is headlining the opening night on Thursday, which comes less than a week since new gambling laws were introduced in Britain.

Richard Noble, general manager of Aspers, emphasised the difference between modern and traditional casinos.

He said: “The old-style venues typically were smaller establishments, usually quite smoky - the restaurants and the bars were just purely there to offer a service to keep people at gaming tables.

“We’re looking the complete opposite. All our ancillaries within Aspers, our restaurants, our bars, they’re all businesses in themselves.

“Where the old-style casino, they welcomed people who were there to game, we welcome people here to enjoy themselves.”

Swansea Council leader Chris Holley said people should remember that casinos had existed in Swansea, Cardiff and other cities for more than 40 years.

He said: “We have to remember modern casinos like Aspers are not just a place that you go for gambling, there’s facilities for restaurants, it’s an entertainment venue as well.

“I can understand people’s concerns but I would be a lot more concerned if I was in the government about the online gambling that’s taking place.

“That’s virtually unregulated at the moment you know whereas the casinos are very well regulated and run by responsible people so I don’t have a problem with that and they’re not new, they’re just bigger and better.”

Source BBC