Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether it would be permissible for a casino to be located in Manchester in a location other than that in East Manchester considered by the Casino Advisory Panel.

Richard Caborn (Minister of State (Sport), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; Sheffield Central, Labour)

Section 175(4) of the Gambling Act 2005 requires the Secretary of State to make an order specifying which licensing authorities may issue the one regional, eight large and eight small casino premises licences permitted by the Act. No final decision has been taken on which licensing authorities should be specified in the order, and the order will be subject to parliamentary approval by the affirmative resolution procedure.

The Government are aware that a number of licensing authorities may have made applications to the Casino Advisory Panel having earmarked a single location as being suitable for a new casino. This would not override the responsibility of licensing authorities to give all applications for the casino premises licence equal consideration on their own merits, even if they relate to other potential locations in their licensing area.

When developing the criteria against which they will assess the competing applications, licensing authorities may quite legitimately come to the view that the development of a casino in a broad location in their licensing area would be of the greatest benefit to that area.