Memorandum from Mr Leonard Steinberg (DGB
101)
I am writing to you at the request of Lord Wade,
because we at Stanley Leisure are very concerned after reading
the oral evidence given at the Scrutiny Committee recently.
Our worries concern the content and interpretation
and it would take too long to put in writing all the matters with
which we are concerned, however, below are a number of items which
we view with concern:
1. When the Budd Report was initially issued,
one of the pillars of it was that there should not be proliferation
of casinos. In evidence mentioned there are suggestions that there
could be 250 casinos at the end of five years, in our view this
is considerable proliferation. This would all be encouraged by
the machine regime which was, to say the least, extremely generous
and probably dangerous.
2. The size of casinos is undoubtedly an issue
and the smaller they are and the more machines they have will
increase the attempts at proliferation.
3. The Budd Report was anxious not to change
the character of casinos and we believe that the proposals emanating
from some of our colleagues and the trade representatives would
do exactly that, to the detriment of everybody in the industry.
4. We believe that problem gambling has got to
be handled in a very careful and caring way and we were not at
all satisfied with the verbal evidence given.
5. We believe, and still believe, that the permission
of people to drink alcohol at tables and at machines is wrong
and we would like the Scrutiny Committee to change the recommendation
as this in itself can cause problem gambling.
6. We would like to retain a membership position
even though people can come in off the street. By continuing to
have a membership form to be completed, it does give us control
over the people who may come into the casino.
7. Although we have reported over 5,000 transactions
to the Money Laundering Committee, there has not been a prosecution
in one case. We believe that our membership and photograph regulations
help that, and we do not believe that money launderers would consequently
visit the casino.
We have already circulated a copy of our proposal
to the Scrutiny Committee on 9 December and this contains a lot
of our proposals and recommendations as well as our fears. We
are the largest casino company in Britain with 37 provincial casinos
and four London casinos. We have the only post deregulation type
casino in Birmingham which we think it would be useful for the
Scrutiny Committee to visit.
As part of our concerns about Problem Gambling, we
have already contributed £229,000 to the Gambling Trust and
it was myself as Chairman, who was instrumental in first raising
the question of problem gambling many years ago with the late
Reverend Gordon Moody whose Gordon House bears his name. You will
gather from this that our divergence of opinion with the BCA is
considerable and we would sincerely like the opportunity of explaining
our position in greater detail.
January 2004
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