The club wants to build a new ground at Temple Marsh

Mr Scally told BBC South East he was prepared to invest �250,000 of his own money to prove the scheme was viable.

He warned without moving to a modern new home the club could go out of business or be forced to leave the Medway area.

And he said he had been contacted by the owners of a Las Vegas casino interested in opening branches at British football grounds.

Gillingham currently play at the 11,400-seater Priestfield Stadium, their home since 1923.

Football generally cannot support football and certainly at our level it cannot support itself Paul Scally, Gillingham FC chairman

The club has carried out a feasibility study to find potential sites for a new ground around the Gillingham area.

The only site it found was at Temple Marsh, next to the River Medway, close to a number of other leisure outlets and with transport access from the nearby M2.

Building a new stadium would be expensive but paying the bill could be eased with help from the United States.

Mr Scally told the BBC: "We have been approached, like a number of football clubs in the last couple of weeks, by a casino operator from Las Vegas.

Gillingham's present home is the 11,400-capacity Priestfield Stadium

"Subject to gaming law changes in two years' time, they are keen to build very high class, high quality and expensive casinos, in and about football grounds, if they fall within the right conurbations.

"Football generally cannot support football and certainly at our level it cannot support itself, other than with other enabling developments.

"We've built banqueting facilities which help support the football club but we need to be involved in a far bigger commercial operation."

Mr Scally met with Medway Council on Friday to discuss the site, but the council said no conclusions had been reached and they were in discussions with the landowners and a number of parties interested in buying the land.

Mr Scally said: "If we're not able to move to Temple Marsh then there's nowhere in Medway the football club can move to.

"That would signal the end of Gillingham Football Club as a Medway football club."