MPs demand action to prevent proliferation of unlimited jackpots
A committee of MPs has called on the Government to alter its Gambling Bill to ensure that there is not a dangerous proliferation of unlimited jackpot gaming machines.
The Joint Committee on the Draft Gambling Bill (Regional Casinos) said that the current minimum size of such casinos was so low that companies would be able to afford to build up to 45 of them across the country, leading to an undesirable proliferation of Category A gaming machines, which have unlimited payouts.
Increasing the minimum size would hike up the investment needed in each casino to such a level that only 20-25 would probably be built, the MPs recommend.
They said just Category A gaming machines needed to be treated with caution as they remained untested on the UK market, and that because their impact on problem gambling was not known, the Government’s proposed cap on their numbers was justified.
Such machines are a mainstay of many gambling operations in Las Vegas.
The committee also said it was concerned that a lack of clarity on how regeneration benefits would be gained meant that those benefits could be lost.
Committee chair John Greenway said: “We are concerned that the Government’s proposals do not give sufficient emphasis to the need to secure significant regeneration benefits from the development of regional [‘leisure destination’] casinos.”
It welcomed the Government’s decision to carry out a national survey of problem gambling before the bill was introduced, but added that this should include research into Category A machines and their potential for addiction.
There should also be a review after three years of the number of gaming machines allowed in other casinos.
In today’s report the committee also urged the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to resolve their differences over the location of casinos so that they were not built in city centres where they would target vulnerable problem gamblers.
However, it said that legislation was needed “urgently” and none of its recommendations justified a delay in the introduction of the bill.
The committee recommended that the minimum size of “leisure destination” casinos – the term it believes should be used in place of “regional” casinos- should be increased to 7,500 square metres, including at least 4,000 square metres for non-gambling activities.
Children should be allowed into those non-gambling areas, otherwise the casinos would not develop as all-round entertainment facilities, the committee added.
The committee said that the desire to protect the vulnerable, which should take priority, could be “severely compromised” by ODPM planning policy that the leisure destination casinos should be located in town centres in order to aid regeneration. It urged the ODPM and DCMS to work together to resolve the situation.
It also called on the Government to establish national planning guidelines on which cities and areas the casinos should go – something the Government is reluctant to do. And it said there should be measures to prevent casinos being established via “backdoor” conversions from other leisure facilities by making them a separate class of planning applications.
