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Harrah's betting big on complex in Spain

Harrah's Entertainment Inc., operator of casinos such as Caesars, on Wednesday announced a project to build a Las Vegas-style gambling and leisure complex in Ciudad Real, 190 kilometers (118 miles) south of Madrid.

Harrah's would undertake the project in a joint venture with El Reino de Don Quijote de La Mancha SA of Spain.

"We plan to build a 850-room luxury hotel, a 50,000-square-foot Las Vegas-style casino, a 3,000-seat theater, conference center, a 30,000-square-foot spa, shopping mall, multiple restaurants, lounges and bars," said Aurelio Alvarez, chairman of El Reino.

Construction on the project, 60 percent owned by Harrah's and 40 percent by El Reino, is set to begin in late 2006 on a 29-acre site, with completion expected in 2008.

The complex, which eventually will include swimming pool areas and three golf courses, is to be built on a semiarid location called El Reino de Don Quijote, in the Ciudad Real province of the low rainfall Castile-La Mancha region.

Alvarez said water for the project would be obtained from recycling water from Ciudad Real, underground aquifers and the nearby Guadiana river.

Transportation would be provided by two as yet unbuilt highways, a planned international airport and the high-speed AVE bullet train that runs from Madrid to Seville.

Casino-style gaming is not widespread in Spain, though the national lottery is very popular.

Harrah's also plans a similar European gambling complex in Slovenia.

Video games glamorizing guns and violence have long drawn the ire of media watchdog groups. This holiday season, they say they have found a bloody new wrinkle to hate: cannibalism.

Games featuring graphic scenes of cannibalism, F.E.A.R. and Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse, were among the 12 "games to avoid" listed Tuesday by the National Institute on Media and the Family.

"It's something we've never seen before," said institute president David Walsh, warning that today's games are "more extreme" and more easily available to underage kids than ever before.

In Stubbs the Zombie, the lead character eats the brains of humans as blood splatters across the screen.

"It's just the worst kind of message to kids," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who joined institute officials at a press conference announcing the group's 10th annual video game report card. "They can be dangerous to your children's health."

Hal Halpin, head of Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association, an industry trade group, defended such games, saying they are rated M, not intended for children under 17.

--Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

[Last modified December 1, 2005, 01:07:16]