Casino July-Aug 08 P12 23/6/08 11:46 Page 34
UK POLITICS
“Only three-and-a-half years late!”
Former UK Shadow Gambling Minister Nick Hawkins sorts the wheat
from the chaff in his bi-monthly column…
S
o, at long, long, last, nearly three and a half investment to rejuvenate the run-down seaside resorts
years after the Gambling Act 2005 passed like Blackpool, where I was once MP, once a matter of
into legislation, on the day Parliament rose wide cross-party and expert consensus after the Budd
for the 2005 General Election, after all the Report and the Greenway Committee, was first
Government stumbles and fumbles and watered down by the Government after its
changes of tack, we finally have the legislative Order backbenchers panicked in the wake of the 'Mail'
allowing for eight new so-called "large" casinos and onslaught, and then its last vestige, the one-remaining
eight so-called "small" casinos, passed through both the planned so-called "supercasino" was killed off
House of Commons and House of Lords. After all the altogether by the anti-Gambling Gordon Brown – yet
sound and fury of the media onslaught led by the Daily another of the many errors he's made, so many of
Mail from Autumn 2004, it passed with hardly a ripple which are now coming to light!
of attention from the national media in the end. After Even if the Government (probably a different
all the fuss, will it all turn out a bit of a damp squib? I Government!) receives reports, as I'm sure they will, in
fear so. The media circus has moved on. Of course, in some years time, that the new casinos have not caused
Nick Hawkins is a Barrister most of the new locations there will continue to be problems, it will be very difficult ever again to create the
specialising in Gambling and local media and doubtless much campaigning by anti- head of steam there was for the benefits of resort
Leisure law. In his 13 years gambling organisations, but in the greater scheme of casinos as a regeneration mechanism (as demonstrated
in Parliament previously, he things, the new casinos won't really amount to a hill of in Atlantic City in the USA) which had been built up by
held roles in Government and beans in the national consciousness, never mind the 2003 and the early part of 2004. As resorts continue to
Opposition, including 'Sodom and Gomorrah' conjured up by the Editor of struggle – and every week my trade press brings more
Shadow Solicitor-General the Mail. With the economy in trouble now, and the reports of tough times for traders, especially the
and Shadow Sports Minister. pressure on "the leisure pound" more competitive as licensed trade, bingo and arcades, for all the well-
He is now Legal Director for people tighten their belts, having to spend more on understood reasons – I reflect how sad it is that the
a gaming company. necessities like food and fuel and consequently having Government turned its back, for no rational reason, on
less left over for leisure spending on "luxuries" like the hope all the new investment would have brought.
gambling, I wonder how many of the 16 new venues will Amid all of the Blair/Brown "manifold sins and
be built and opened on anything like the timescale wickednesses", one small footnote, when the political
originally envisaged? I'm sure most, if perhaps not all, history of 2004-2008 comes to be written might be
will be built eventually, but, in the light of these new called "the strange death of the British seaside resort,
less happy economic circumstances, as the failures of and how the Government rejected its chance of
earlier policy decisions start coming home to roost, salvation". Ironic, really, how these concepts come to
"now may not be the best time". It may also, alas, be a mind, when one thinks that one of the most vocal
case of "displacement". If one of the new venues opens opponents of the new casinos are the Salvation Army.
with excellent new facilities and is highly attractive to Away from casinos, at the time of writing this, there
punters, but is in an area not too far away from an also is continued confusion over what the Government
existing casino, or more than one, for which there has will do with the Tote – but it seems very clear that the
not been the investment for upgrading and Government will break its oft-repeated past promise
improvement to compete, will the old go to the wall and that all the benefits from the Tote will go to the benefit
close? - I fear they will. of racing. They will seek to hide behind EU law as a
The best prospect will, I suspect, if the design is right, reason stopping them doing what they promised. I'd
be for those new casinos which are in locations away rather we stood up to the EU, in the country's and
from the old "permitted areas", and quite a distance racing's interest – (they would in France…!) Also, at the
therefore from any existing competition – I will time of writing, the current Gambling Minister is
certainly look forward to seeing those that provide "the apparently expected to make an announcement which
best of the new", in new locations – I wish them well would help the sector within literally days – by the time
and hope they demonstrate that gambling is an entirely you are reading this we'll know what it was. My bet is
legitimate part of the leisure and entertainment bringing forward the review of machine stakes and
industry, going forward into the future. prizes, due in 2009, to start now – if so, a sop, but
better than nothing at all – “never look a gift horse in
However, I still bewail the great missed opportunity. the mouth…" Let's hope the name of the Derby winner
The original concept of the leisure destination resort is significant – after Comply or Die won the National,
casino, which would have brought in the massive we do need a ‘New Approach’…
12 JULY/AUGUST 2008
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