The decision to scrap plans to build a super casino in the UK effectively killed off the notion of opening a 1,250-machine gaming facility anywhere in the country, it has been claimed.

Blackpool Blackpool

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown chose to abandon the plans to build a super casino following the decision to award the licence, which was written into the 2005 Gambling Act, to Manchester. The proposals had been met by a wave of opposition, led in part by the mainstream British press.  

National Casino Industry Forum chairman Malcolm Moss believes the plans were flawed, particularly the choice of location, but that there remains scope for a limited number of casino properties that are larger than those defined as ‘large’ under the 2005 Act. The first of this new generation of British casinos, Aspers at Westfield Stratford City in London, will open on December 1 with 150 gaming machines and is permitted 30 tables.

“The super casino idea, I think, is dead,” Moss told InterGaming. “But that’s not to say that a large casino – not as defined by the 2005 Act – could not be built somewhere like Blackpool, if there’s still a chance to resurrect that place.”

The problem, he said, are the definitions of size set out in the Act.

He said: “Why do we have to be specific? There’s a hell of a difference between 150 and 1,250 machines. There could be something with perhaps more machines than 150 without it being just a huge machine shed. There may be the odd location where the footfall would merit this kind of thing and where, from a regenerative point of view, the local authority would welcome it.”

Blackpool, he said, remains the “classic case” of a resort that requires “resurrecting” and a sizeable casino has the potential to bring new life to the area.

“Now, it’s not the size of the casino necessarily,” said Moss, “but all the development that goes with it – the hotels, the theatres and conference centres. Blackpool as a destination would get a massive, massive boost.”

NCiF is calling for the government to re-think the UK’s gaming regulations, particularly the ratio of gaming machines to tables, which it says ought to be increased to five to one across the board, and the portability of gaming licences.

Under the present system, the areas casinos can be located in the UK are restricted, meaning some locations that would benefit from a casino development miss out while others that have the opportunity to offer multiple licences do not do so because the market is over saturated.

Lifting these restrictions, explained Moss, would allow for a more even spread of casinos and would potentially get the ball rolling quicker on the development of the seven remaining large casino licences.   

Read the full interview with Malcolm Moss of the National Casino Industry Forum in the January issue of InterGaming.