London’s casino developers, council planners and other interested parties met with the London Assembly’s economic development and planning committee today to discuss the impact of casinos on local areas.
Representatives from Anschutz Entertainment Group and Kerzner International hope to have a regional casino at the Dome in Greenwich.
Quintain Estates and Caesars Entertainment are vying for a casino at Wembley, and Development Securities and Sun International hope to get permission for a casino in Rainham.
The operators were keen to point out to the committee that casinos would spark regeneration in each of their locations by creating thousands of new jobs and ploughing millions of pounds into the local communities.
Christian group the Evangelical Alliance was also at the meeting to voice its concerns about the relaxation in gambling laws.
The group challenged the notion that casinos would work as a regenerative tool. It claimed that jobs were not created by casinos but merely displaced from existing smaller businesses that were unable to compete. It said that local communities were likely to suffer rather than gain from a casino development.
In its submission to the committee, the Evangelical Alliance said: “We accept the government is seeking long-term solutions to regeneration and the generation of additional tax revenue.
“But the regeneration must be of the right type. Liberalisation of the gambling law must not be seen as an expedient “magic bullet” for these issues.”
References: EGi News 01/03/05
