Examination of Witnesses (Questions 360-362)
MR SIMON
THOMAS, SIR
PETER FRY
AND MR
JOHN CARPENTER
17 NOVEMBER 2005
Q360 Dr Taylor: So you would all
agree with the previous witnesses that 2009 would be a reasonable
period?
Sir Peter Fry: I think we would
be, well, I would not say very happy but we would be well satisfied
with that, yes.
Mr Thomas: It gives us time to
work on this question of displacement. When Mr Carpenter is talking
about little old ladies going somewhere where they can play bingo,
just for clarity, all working men's clubs, all political clubs,
these 19,000 clubs, can play bingo. They are playing bingo now
and a lot of our customers go between the two already. If we are
banned from smoking and they are not, our customers will go there
and they will play bingo there and play slot machines there, they
will go drinking there and eating there, in an environment where
they can eat and smoke, which will be the only place in the country,
and also in an environment where children are allowed in, which
seems to be completely against all of the principles of this smoking
legislation.
Q361 Chairman: Does that alter from
one part of the country to another? In the village in which I
live there are four what I would call working men's clubs. There
used to be five and one has been recently knocked down for house
building, but other parts of the country do not have those types
of membership clubs, do they?
Mr Carpenter: I am in Oxfordshire
and I have four private members' clubs in town three of which
regularly play bingo.
Sir Peter Fry: To give an example,
in Northamptonshire the owner of the local bingo club told me
he has investigated and there are no less than 60 clubs within
a ten-mile radius of his club.
Q362 Chairman: Prize money is substantially
different.
Sir Peter Fry: Yes it is. But
can I just say I do not want anybody to get the impression we
have come here to knock the working men's clubs. Indeed, when
the weekly limit for bingo was put at £1,000 in the Gaming
Bill we said that it could go up to £2,000 before the scrutiny
committee, so no way are we attacking them, no way are we saying
they should not play bingo. We just want it to be the same rules
for them as there are going to be for us.
Mr Carpenter: I would make the
point that £2,000 is a considerable prize fund and it is
more than I can offer in a night.
Chairman: Could I thank all of you for
coming along and giving evidence to us. You probably heard earlier
that we are hoping there will be in somebody's Christmas stocking
the report itself, and we will see what happens from there, as
it were. We hope to publish it before Christmas if at all possible.
Thank you for inviting us. We are very pleased you are doing this
study.
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