Newport is Wales’ third largest city, it is in a room period right now and is known as a city on the rise. With a lot of work going on right now, it’s a city to look forward to its development. Wales has had big success with casinos in the past, Cardiff is the biggest city in Wales and has had a massive impact on the overall economy of Wales.
Economic state of Wales
As previously mentioned Newport is a city on the rise, with Wales getting a lot of attention over the last few years, especially when the 2018 Champions League final was held in Cardiff. With media attention and extra money, it is a big decade for Wales as they carry on their development.
For Newport, they held 2 sports events in the 2010s(one being the Ryder Cup) showcasing their ability to deliver not only global golfing events but the biggest tournament in football. To the east of the city, they have invested 1 billion in transforming a 600-acre site which will be home to 4000 homes over the next 20 years. With these investments and with ambition running high a massive boost for the city would be adding a big casino.
What would a casino do for Newport?
Welsh culture goes hand in hand with betting. Betting is a massive point of interest to the Welsh people and having a big new casino in their 3rd biggest city would likely be a great addition. Being able to open a casino that supplies lots of jobs and gets more people to come in and try it is a massive opportunity. The Welsh gambling industry is massive and if there was a new local casino attraction it could get more people from around Wales and in Newport to try it, this is good for transport links and money coming from that.
The overall thought behind the opening would be looking at it as an investment, the connections you would get from the casino would be massive, and you could get independent establishments or the biggest corporations in online gambling to collaborate or invest in the project.
The casino could also be used to host events in Newport, and get people down from all over England if it was marketed correctly. The net positives outweigh the negatives and we think it would be really smart for Newport.
Potential social issues
Although gambling is a massive thing in Welsh culture it doesn’t mean that there are no negatives for opening the casino. The social impact a casino would have could do more wrong than good, people putting their money in the casino is a partial negative as Newport’s economy could take the hit for that. There is the issue of where would you put it. What do you knock down or sell to make room for a casino which could be looked on in a bad way by locals?
Also, if you invest a lot of money, knock down something, hire people and then it doesn’t garner as much interest as anticipated, then millions of pounds could be wasted. If you wasted millions on a failed casino the locals and other Welsh people could lose faith in the investments of the city.
Tourism boost
As we slightly mentioned earlier, the attractions of the casino would be massive. If it is a big casino that finds the right audience and does something special it could bring in a lot of good tourism, which is a massive bit of income for the city.
Conclusion
Overall, we believe the benefits attributed with having a new local casino would greatly outweigh the negatives that come with it. The financial boost it could give the city could also help the country, not only Newport.
Newport becoming an even bigger tourist attraction would be important for the future of Wales. It would contribute to the overall growth of the UK, which from a financial standpoint, couldn’t come at a better time.
