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Casinos fight it out
Jan 29 2005
By Neil Elkes, Evening Mail
Blues, the NEC and Star City will have to slug it out for the right to become Birmingham's first Las Vegas-style super casino.
Culture secretary Tessa Jowell, the minister responsible for the gaming industry deregulation, has ruled out Birminghamhaving more than one of the new super casinos.
Speaking during a visit to Yardley, the Labour minister revealed she could not see the city being given more than one of the new casinos.
"There will be eight of them throughout Britain. An independent panel will decide which towns and cities will be recommended for this first round," she it out said. But Blues could be favourites as she revealed the winning bid should be boosted by an element of regeneration.
The football club has teamed up with the city council and a US gaming company to earmark a derelict industrial site in Bordesley Green for a stadium and casino complex.
Its rivals, the NEC group and Star City in Nechells, are based in existing leisure complexes.
Ms Jowell also claimed that the loosening of gaming laws would be stopped in its tracks if gambling addiction rises in those areas selected.
There will only be more casinos subject to there being no evidence of harm and Parliamentary approval, she added.
It is unlikely, however that a decision will be taken before the end of 2006, with the House of Lords yet to approve the gaming bill and an independent panel set up to receive and consider bids.
The minister was in the Midlands to support Labour campaigns ahead of an expected spring general election.
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