In the United Kingdom, casino operator A&S Leisure Group Limited has announced that it will be closing one of the two venues it runs in the English city of Sheffield this weekend in order to better focus on a property it is planning to build in nearby Manchester.

The Sheffield-based firm revealed that its Napoleons Casino and Restaurant Ecclesall Road property in the city’s suburban Greystones neighborhood will be shutting its doors for good on Sunday after 42 years in business. It stated that it subsequently intends to ‘re-site’ the venue’s gaming license to its much larger Napoleons Casino and Restaurant Owlerton operation located about four miles away and close to the 39,000-seat Hillsborough Stadium of English Championship soccer side Sheffield Wednesday.

In addition to its two casinos in Sheffield, A&S Leisure Group Limited is responsible for similar venues in the Yorkshire cities of Hull, Leeds and Bradford while also operating the Napoleons Casino London venue near the center of London’s tourist-packed Leicester Square.

Dave Allen, Chairman for A&S Leisure Group Limited, described the decision to shutter Napoleons Casino and Restaurant Ecclesall as a ‘sad day’ before declaring that ‘time moves on and Ecclesall Road is not what it used to be’.

“We’d like to thank everyone for their patronage over the years and do hope people will continue to enjoy the Napoleons experience at Napoleons [Casino and Restaurant] Owlerton in Sheffield,” read a statement from Allen.

Allen further revealed that the near future will see his firm open a new 500-seat banqueting suite at its Napoleons Casino and Restaurant Owlerton, which could create up to 200 jobs, while employees at the closing casino are to be offered similar positions at its other venues.

Sheffield, which is the fifth largest city in England by population, is also home to the Genting Casino Sheffield venue of Genting Group subsidiary Genting Casinos UK Limited as well as Rank Group’s Grosvenor Casino Sheffield. A&S Leisure Group Limited explained that it hopes to start construction on a new casino in Manchester ‘towards the end of the year’ after earlier acquiring ‘a fantastic site in a prime location’.

“We must now look forward to the future and the exciting plans we have in place for the Owlerton and Manchester sites,” read the statement from Allen.