A competition to earn the right to create a new casino along the Royal Pier Waterfront of Southampton has finally come to an end, with the Aspers group being named the winner. For years, companies vied for the super casino license and on Tuesday it was announced that Aspers had earned the gaming license to create a venue on the proposed Royal Pier Waterfront development. Aspers was able to beat out Kymeria, Global Gaming Ventures and Grosvenor for the license. In August Grosvenors shut down their Osborne Road casino in Portsmouth.

The Southampton casino license will be the final one of eight large casino options that the government of the United Kingdom will be issuing. The venue is said to have as many as 150 electronic gaming machines as well as 30 gaming tables that will be located on a gaming floor of 1,000 square meters. Local jobs, a minimum of 180, should be created with the project.

Once the license is received, Aspers will pay the local council £100k and then an additional £150k will be paid when the Royal Pier Waterfront project is opened by 2021. The waterfront project has a total cost of £450m for completion. A minimum of 2% of the gross gambling revenues of the casino will go to the authority while Aspers will also pay £50k on an annual basis that will go towards the Community Action for Responsible Gambling forum.

The City Council Licensing Committee Chairman, Matt Tucker, stated that the new casino will play a big part in the redevelopment of the waterfront, for both Royal Pier and Mayflower Park. Tucker continued by stating that the casino tender was the largest and most complex competition nationally and the high level of competition allowed the council to find Aspers to be the operator that they believe will deliver the most for the casino venue.

Damian Aspinall is the Chairman of Aspers, who commented on earning the license stating the company is delighted to have won the Southampton tender and will use the opportunity to expand on their two existing casino operations, the Westfield Stratford of London and Milton Keynes, the two large offerings by the group.