Leeds May Still Get Super Casino

A huge Las Vegas-style casino could still be on the cards for Leeds, it emerged today.

Plans for a site next to Leeds United's Elland Road ground appeared to have been scuppered earlier this year by a Government climbdown on its controversial Gambling Act. Original plans for as many as 40 massive gaming centres were cut to just one – almost certainly not Leeds – to get the Bill through Parliament.

Now Culture Minister Richard Caborn has hinted that the Government might give up to FOUR super casinos the green light and today the odds were rapidly shortening on the Elland Road scheme being revived.

Britain's biggest casino operator, Stanley Leisure, paid £5m in October last year for first option on a seven-acre site behind the stadium's Revie Stand.

The company wanted to use the land for a £125m development boasting 40 gaming tables and more than 1,000 slot machines. A hotel, restaurants, bars, leisure facilities and designer shops would also feature in a complex that would generate at least 1,000 jobs.

A spokeswoman for Stanley Leisure said today that the company had never abandoned its plans to build a casino at the football ground.

She explained that it had simply decided to concentrate on getting the go-ahead for a smaller scale scheme there.

The spokeswoman also said, however, that if Mr Caborn's comments did herald a shift in Government policy, then the company might yet resurrect its bid to set up a super casino in LS11.

John Grogan MP (Lab, Selby) asked the minister in the House of Commons on Monday about rumours that the Government could be ready to soften its line on super casinos.

Mr Caborn replied: "After all those gambles that we had to take before getting the Bill through, the answer is that we do not rule out the possibility of asking Parliament at some future point to consider changing the numbers."

Last month London Clubs International unveiled plans for a £6m casino at Clarence Dock in Leeds.