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.