Clause 7 - Casino
Gambling Bill
3:15 pm
Miss Julie Kirkbride (Bromsgrove, Conservative)
Thank you, Mr. Pike. As hon. Members have said, many questions have to be answered. Where will these casinos be sited? Will they be allowed in the cities? Will they be allowed in London? Will we get the regeneration benefits that they may offer by ensuring that they are sited in areas where tourism could be given the greatest boost?
My hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath was making a pitch for having regional casinos in our seaside areas, which are struggling at the moment to produce a tourism product on which people want to spend a lot of money. If we are to have so many casinos we should consider making them destination casinos in seaside towns, giving those areas a welcome tarting-up on the proceeds. That seems much better than having them in our inner cities.
As my hon. Friend pointed out, other opportunities for investment exist in the inner cities, not least in the retail sector. Sheffield and other cities throughout the United Kingdom have had lots of money spent on them because as major population centres they have a captive demand for other activities, and do not have to include casino gambling. I hope that the Minister will listen to that argument, which has been pressed on him quite strongly by several members of the Committee.
I want to end on a note that I have heard throughout the day since the Government came up with this magical figure of eight casinos. We all wonder why eight. Why not seven, six, five, four, three, two or one? Why not nine, 10, 11 or 12? Obviously it was given careful consideration. I am sure that the Minister and members of the Committee would be interested to hear the view that it was the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister that was keen on the idea that there should be eight regional casinos. Furthermore, the Deputy Prime Minister wanted eight casinos because he is strongly in favour of the millennium dome being one of the sites that gets the go-ahead. I would be grateful if the Minister could comment on whether that is the case. Clearly if London is to get only one casino, there are areas, such as West Ham or Wembley, that have a stronger claim than the dome on the regeneration
benefits of a casino. It might not be possible to have two casinos in London if the number of casinos permitted by the Bill were any lower.
If the ODPM has strongly pressed for eight casinos for the reasons that I have just outlined, the taxpayer would have quite an interest in that. Kerzner International has contracted with the present owners of the dome for a £210 million casino to be installed on the site, subject to it being allowed under the Bill. If the site is economically successful, English Partnerships will get back some £33 million that it has spent on maintaining the dome since it fell out of active use. There is an ongoing contract for the dome, not just to release funds to English Partnerships, but to the lottery.