Local authorities gamble on casino operators
Casino operators in the UK looked on in envy last month when Singapore’s first casino opened.
The $4.7bn development exuded confidence.
Perhaps they were considering what might have been. Singapore legalised casinos in 2007, the same year the Gambling Act 2005 came into force, giving 16 local authorities the right to build them in the UK. Today, some of those 16 are going through the tortuous consultation process, but others are doing nothing at all.
But while Singaporeans hit the tables, the chips did not fall right in the UK. A month into office in July 2007, Gordon Brown abolished east Manchester’s “supercasino” and its proposed 1,200 slot machines. Brown declared that there were better ways of meeting economic and social needs than a Las Vegas-style gambling palace.
Instead, eight local authorities were permitted to build casinos of 10,764 sq ft, and eight more allowed to build no bigger than 8,073 sq ft. These 16 will add to the UK’s existing 140 casinos.
Solihull Borough Council began consultation last month with operators and developers for a large casino and Bath and North East Somerset has started planning for one of the smaller-sized venues.
Aspers, which owns London club Aspinalls, has casinos in Northampton, Swansea and Newcastle.
It has entered into agreements with developers to open large casinos at Westfield Stratford in east London and X-Leisure’s Xscape at Milton Keynes, between the snow dome and the main road.
Andrew Herd, executive director at Aspers, dismisses the sizes stipulated by the act as merely guidelines. He anticipates that both new casinos will be between 50,000 sq ft and 80,000 sq ft and will each cost between £15m and £20m to fit out.
“The arrangement will be very much like any other leisure property,” he explains. “It would be the same as having a cinema as a tenant. The developer develops and the operator takes a lease. The terms are negotiable.”
Herd estimates that Aspers could receive the go-ahead by early next year.
Before that, the ball is in the local authorities’ court. Part of their legal obligation is to make sure that the casino operator is fit and proper. Aspers is a 50:50 venture between the family of the late John Aspinall, the legendary gambler and private zoo keeper, and the family of the late Australian media mogul, Kerry Packer.
The London Borough of Newham, in which Stratford falls, was the only London borough named in the regulations under the 2005 act. It is still only the third in the capital, joining Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, where casinos have operated for 40 years.
Newham has just sent out application packs, requesting expressions of interest. It says that “a lot of interested parties” have requested the pack besides Aspers. Initial applications will be considered in May.
A council spokesman says: “The proposal must benefit the community and help regenerate the area through the creation of jobs and local people.” The prime minister doubts these criteria will be met.
The spokesman refuses to discuss Westfield Stratford as a location, but concludes that, after councillors looked at casinos in Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea.
“We are confident in being able to accommodate a project of this size and scope in Newham.”
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