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UK
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26 May 2005
Casino Chief Confident Over UK
Casino Licence Bid
The
man behind the casino plans for the Ricoh Arena remains
confident Coventry can bid successfully to build Britain's
first 'super casino.'
Tim Hinkley, of American
company Isle Of Capri, visited the city this week to call on
business chiefs in Coventry to support his firm's bid for
the country's solitary super casino licence.
Next year Isle Of Capri
plans to open a small scale casino at the Arena after
originally wanting to build a massive, 100,000 square foot
Las Vegas-style casino.
But a Government climb
down on new gambling legislation left the company's plans in
limbo.
The Government had wanted
to allow 24 super casinos to open across the country, but
outraged MPs - who feared the move risked increasing the
number of gambling addicts - forced ministers to scale down
the plans to just one licence.
Isle Of Capri, which has
acquired a licence under the existing gambling legislation,
has officially launched a bid to secure the
licence.
Mr Hinkley, the firm's
president and chief operating officer, told Coventry &
Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce's business council the
company had everything in place to win the
licence.
"It makes absolutely
perfect sense for Coventry to be the pilot," he
said.
"Other sites are more than
three years away from completion and have a tremendous
number of hurdles to cross before getting anywhere close to
reality.
"The Isle of Capri sees
tremendous potential in Coventry and believes the Government
should look at our development very closely before deciding
on a pilot," he added.
"We're very confident if
it does that, we will be the only choice."
Blackpool remains
favourite to land the pilot casino licence.
But if Coventry secured
the licence, it could create up to 1,000 jobs in the
city.
Mr Hinkley said 95 per
cent of the jobs would be for local residents and staff
would be paid higher wages than the regional
average.
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