Madrid Cuts Gambling Tax to 10 Percent

Madrid mayor Ignacio Gonzales announced that the regional Spanish gambling tax on land based casinos in the city will be significantly decreased from 45% to 10%.

The dramatic drop in tax rates was one of the most important conditions by land and online casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his company, Las Vegas Sands Corporation, for building the €15 billion EuroVegas in the Madrid municipality region.

Spain is in economic crisis, and its capital Madrid is no exception. The Madrid region has over 25 percent unemployment on top of massive regional government debts.

Gonzalez hopes that Adelson’s EuroVegas investments would create jobs in the region and pump some much needed capital back into the economy.

Madrid had already had the lowest casino taxes in Spain before the cut, taking away 22 to 45 percent of gambling profits.

Other regions in Spain tax an impertinent 60% on land casinos. For comparison, Las Vegas takes away between 6% to 8%, so Madrid’s 10 % was close to the maximum that Sheldon would agree to accept.

Of course there was a lot of opposition from the public sector, but Gonzales defended the gambling tax cut by saying without it Sheldon would make his multi-billion-dollar investment simply somewhere else.

The massive EuroVegas project is expected to include 12 full casino resorts, nine theaters, six casinos, three golf courses, and even new sports stadiums.

Spanish gambling news estimate that EuroVegas would create 250,000 jobs. That is work for a quarter million people. Something that Madrid baldy needs at the moment.