RANGERS Football Club and Las Vegas Sands, the American casino company, were given approval yesterday by Glasgow City Council to develop a £120 million entertainment complex including a Las Vegas-style casino.

The project is the first “regional casino” to receive planning permission in Britain, although it still requires approval from ministers, who have said that only one regional “super casino” can be developed in Britain, alongside eight “large” and eight “small” casinos, under its plans to reform gaming.

A special advisory body will decide next year where the casinos should be.

The Glasgow project will face intense competition from sites across Britain, including Blackpool, the favourite, and Wembley in London, for the right to be home to the regional super casino.

Rodney Brody, head of development for the UK and Europe at Las Vegas Sands, said that he planned to encourage MPs and councils to lobby for more regional casinos. “I am convinced it is a question of when rather than if the casino goes ahead,” he said.

Mr Brody said that he expected ministers to allow more than one regional super casino to be built.

Many local councils are attracted to the idea of casinos, because they will generate jobs and attract investment to run-down areas.

The Glasgow project faces opposition from the SNP and the Scottish Socialists, which say that the casino effectively will be a tax on the poor and will create social problems. The operator is expected to have to fund programmes to help gambling addicts.

Las Vegas Sands has signed deals with Manchester United, Birmingham City and Sheffield United football clubs to build entertainment complexes that include regional casinos near their stadiums.

The £120 million entertainment complex in Glasgow forms part of a wider £200 million masterplan for the Hinshelwood area of Glasgow.

Times Recommends

• C&G axed - 1,660 jobs to be lost
• UK house prices rise 1.1% as buyers return
• Mixed reaction to US banks repaying bailouts