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UK
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01 February
2005
Brit Bill Now Needs A
'Miracle'
Britain's
increasingly unpopular Gambling Bill is in danger of being
shunted off its political tracks and could be derailed
altogether unless there are further significant climbdowns
by ministers.
With a general election
scheduled for early May and only a few weeks to get the Bill
approved in the Lords, Conservative shadow culture secretary
Malcolm Moss has said that only a 'miracle' would see the
Bill passed in time.
He said the government had
gone down 'something of a cul-de-sac' and had created a bill
that 'almost nobody wants.'
Claims by Derek Jeffrey,
the chief executive of the British Casino Association, that
government ministers, including Lord McIntosh and Richard
Caborn, were 'considering dropping the casino elements of
the Bill in order to get it passed,' were dismissed by a
spokesman for the department for culture, media and sport.
"Anyone who is looking at this realises time is tight and it
is possible it will run out of time before May elections,"
Jeffrey warned.
The 8:8:8 cap for the
three different tiers of proposed casinos has caused uproar
amongst existing operators, who have also now been
effectively told there will be a fourth category of casino,
those smaller than the small definition, which won't be
allowed more than the existing 10 category B
machines.
If the bill does go
through it will be the end of 2006 before anything is
finalised concerning where the new casinos will be
housed.
A government-appointed
panel will produce a shortlist of recommended locations for
each category of style casino although the task will not be
completed for another two years.
The depressing time scale
will then see local authorities in these areas invite
applications to tender from gaming operators, who will
compete for the chance to develop the licences.
Existing operators are
believed to have welcomed the prospect of the bill being
shunned into the next parliament, with the hope that
different ministers would prove more sympathetic to British
companies.
Related pages:
Gambling
Bill
New
Cap On Casinos Upsets UK Operators
Limit
Vegas-Style UK Casinos, Say MPs
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