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Super-casino 'due to be scrapped'

The government is expected to officially announce the scrapping of a super-casino for Manchester and confirm plans for 16 regional casinos.

They are likely to be approved for towns across the UK, including Leeds, Milton Keynes, Swansea and Stranraer.

Manchester had won the bid to develop a Las Vegas-style resort but Gordon Brown effectively killed off the plans soon after taking over as prime minister.

Manchester Council may appeal against any decision to ditch the super-casino.

In January last year, Manchester was the surprise winner of a bid to create a gigantic casino in a depressed area of the city.

But Gordon Brown announced a review of the decision in July, saying super-casinos are not the best way to regenerate run-down areas.

Culture secretary Andy Burnham is expected to confirm in a statement to MPs that the super-casino will be ditched.

An announcement is also expected from communities secretary Hazel Blears on an alternative development package for the Manchester area.

Reports have indicated that casinos holding up to 150 slot machines with prizes of up to £4,000 are expected to be approved in Leeds, Southampton, Great Yarmouth, Middlesbrough, Solihull, Hull, Milton Keynes, and Newham in east London.

Permission has been predicted for smaller casinos in the Bath area; Stranraer in south-west Scotland; Scarborough; Wolverhampton; Swansea; Luton; Torbay in Devon; and East Lindsey in Lincolnshire, an area which contains resorts including Skegness.

Mr Brown's spokesman said: "As we said in July, there is a huge difference in scale in terms of gambling opportunities in a super-casino and smaller casinos.

"What we said was we would work up alternative regeneration packages which did not rely on a super-casino."

Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "After seven months of dithering, the government's gambling policy is a mess.

"When will the government understand this is not about the size of the casino but the underlying protections put in place to prevent and treat a social disorder that breaks up families?"

Liberal Democrat culture spokesman Don Foster said the government's gambling policy was "muddled and confused" with the original local authority bids for the super-casino costing more than £1m of taxpayers' money.

good thing the councils didn't waste a lot of money trying to get something that was never going to be finally approved by the Government.

What a joke.

The thing is, he's right. Casinos suck money out of areas. In Las Vegas this isn't a problem, as new money flies into the airport every day from all over the world. Even Blackpool would have used the supercasino as part of a wider plan to make themselves a place people would travel to from all over the country - spend a few days on holiday having a gamble with money which is essentially 'spare' and which is being brought into the area. But few people are going to have a holiday in Manchester - the casino is far more likely to be frequented by local people, using money which would have been spent in other local businesses, thus hurting the area.

as for Manchester, Andrew, doesn't the same apply to

Leeds, Southampton, Great Yarmouth, Middlesbrough, Solihull, Hull, Milton Keynes, and Newham in east London.


some of which have casinos, some of which are deprived areas?

Yes, it does. The local councils think these casinos are some sort of magic bullet to regenerate an area but I just don't see it. I mean, Stranraer?? The town is a port in the middle of nowhere with a high street and not much else.

Mind you, Solihull is actually very posh and well-to-do when you compare it to the places around it...

Let the legal battles, and more expense to the taxpayers, commence.

A government shambles - standard.

As I understand it , the Super Casino was going to be more of a Super Resort/Entertainment complex with bars/restaurants, a hotel etc....thus providing thousands of jobs in regeneration, where as the smaller ones will just be a bog standard casino.

Not convined Manchester was the better choice however....Blackpool was/is crying out for this.

Not all of it!!  People in Solihull just think they're posher... ;)

Let's not beat about the bush now Andrew.......Stranraer is a shit hole.

Geo

Phew! When i saw the title of the thread i thought the Luton G was closing!!

Its not super!

I agree there was going to be much more than the casino with bars, clubs and restaurants erected but its all an ideology- your not guaranteed that this will increase the tourism in the area! I watched a very good documentary on Atlanta in the states-which was the same idea- and like AndrewT said it basically sucked money out of the local economy and created a lot of problem gamblers within the area- i'm sorry but I dont think putting a gambling mecca in a deprived area of poverty will work- if anything families in these areas will suffer more!

I agree a bit more with blackpool though as it is already a tourist economy and if the casino was to go anywhere it should be there to boost their dwindling tourist industry

Atlanta, gambler's paradise ;)