Bleak View Of Blackpool Super Casino Effect

A super casino in Blackpool would risk turning trade away from existing businesses, cost £15 million a year due to problem gambling and not change the area's reliance on low-paid and seasonal work, a highly critical new report has claimed.

Leading regeneration consultants, Hall Aitken, fear Blackpool could suffer an 'Atlantic City effect' with unemployment remaining high and crime, homelessness and property speculation blighting areas of the town.

Blackpool Council chiefs say the high number of areas chasing the one available regional casino licence prove the value of the proposed casino.

But the report's authors write: "It is our view, on the basis of international evidence, that many existing and competing businesses would be blighted or undermined by the presence of a regional casino. Significant numbers of businesses and neighbourhoods may be affected."

They also claim that many casino jobs would go to workers from as far afield as Eastern Europe and prove unsuitable for people in Blackpool who are 'economically inactive'. The new training academy, officially opened at Blackpool and the Fylde College last week, is 'untried' as a means of bridging that gap, they add.

Blackpool Council leader, Cllr Roy Fisher, dismissed the report as inaccurate and said: "The over riding factor must be that 45 local authorities, including major cities up and down the country, are vying for this much sought after regeneration prize.

"A regional casino would be like a grain of sand making a pearl - it would start the process of creating something much bigger and better. Thousands of higher paid, all year round jobs would be created for local people ranging from construction to managerial; customer services to hospitality."

Dr Jim Twomey author of a Pion Economics report which supported Blackpool's casino plans, said: "Its my view that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Blackpool that will deliver longer term benefits for the local economy and this is what Blackpool is working hard to achieve."

But Blackpool councillor and long term opponent of new casinos, Cllr Steven Bate, said: "This study backs up dozens of similar reports I have read over the past five years. Economists, tourist and addiction experts from all over the world, are warning Blackpool to reject the lies from gambling pushers.

"There is overwhelming evidence that jobs will be transferred or lost, and that Blackpool's family image will be destroyed."

Cllr Bate also repeated his call for a referendum on the proposed casino.