Has Brown Cooled Toward Super Casinos?

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Statements in Prime Minister's Question Time suggest another gambling review may be on the cards

Viewers watching the British Prime Minister's Question Time in Parliament this week, and reading a later report in The Times saw new Prime Minister Gordon Brown apparently taking another look at British gaming law.

The Times reported that Brown has "...killed off the chances of a supercasino opening in Britain, in his most explicit break from the Blair era to date.

"Despite four years of intense lobbying by casino organisations, an unprecedented competition between councils and a huge parliamentary effort, the Prime Minister today signaled that vast Las Vegas-style gambling dens will not come to Britain."

Although Brown stopped short of declaring that no regional casinos would be built, The Times quotes unspecified government sources saying that the plan for regional casinos is "dead in the water". Plans for 16 smaller casinos may return to Parliament over the next few months.

Mr Brown previously indicated his lack of enthusiasm for super casinos, having imposed a 50 percent tax on any large gambling venues at the last election. By contrast, his predecessor repeatedly indicated that he was happy for unlimited numbers of super-casinos, only restricted by the market, because he believed they brought regeneration benefits to run down areas.

Cancellations at this stage are unlikely to be popular in Manchester which won the competition to run Britain's first supercasino earlier this year, or in Blackpool, which was still hoping it might get one too. Casino firms and councils spent millions trying to attract super-casinos to their areas.

Answering a question from a Labour MP in the Commons, Brown said that regeneration may be a better way of meeting the economic and social needs of hard-pressed areas than the creation of super casinos. He told Andy Reed, the Labour MP for Loughborough that this would be taken into consideration by ministers during a period of “reflection” over the summer.

Brown said: “This is an issue on which there is no consensus found in the two Houses of Parliament. And it is an issue now subject to reflection over the next few months. In September we will have a report that will look at gambling in our country - the incidence and prevalence of it and the social effects of it.

“I hope that during these summer months we can look at whether regeneration in the areas for the supercasinos maybe a better way of meeting their economic and social needs than the creation of supercasinos.”

Last month the British Casino Association (BCA) lost a high court challenge regarding government plans for seventeen regional casinos.

A spokesperson for the British Casino Association said that certainty was needed, and that to date it has been absent. “It is important that this situation is resolved quickly and decisively, he said.  The BCA has consistently called for the Government to look again at its policies in relation to the new Regional, Small and Large casinos, and we will be urging Ministers to take this opportunity to amend the Act in a way which meets all of its objectives without needlessly penalising existing businesses,” the spokesperson said.