46. Memorandum from the Hilton
Group (GMB 42)
I am pleased to submit a short response from
the Hilton Group to the reconvened Joint Scrutiny Committee. We
are delighted to have the opportunity of contributing towards
the Committee's thinking with regard to the development of casinos.
Both Hilton and Ladbrokes have admired the way your Committee
has addressed so many complex and important issues so effectively
and professionally and we have enjoyed being part of that process.
The Hilton Group welcomes the Government's response
to the Joint Scrutiny Committee. We believe that the Government
have broadly managed to achieve the right balance between modernisation
of the current gambling laws, allowing commercial freedom whilst
also neatly addressing proliferation and problem gambling. However,
we wish to make a couple of remarks.
We believe that the Government should reconsider
their proposal to allow small casinos to offer betting. We hold
this view for two reasons. Firstly, allowing betting in small
and large casinos will increase proliferation of gambling and
is likely to increase the risk of problem gambling. We are particularly
concerned that the proposal will enable people to bet, gamble
and drink under one roof. We believe that there will be significant
social issues arising from this proposal and are surprised that
the Government have over-ruled the Committee; especially as the
Government rightly agreed with the Budd Report that alcohol should
not be allowed into betting shops. We see no logic for allowing
casinos to offer customers immediate access on the high street
to drinking and betting.
Secondly, we are concerned about the direct
competitive threat posed to the betting shop from small casinos
able to offer a myriad of gambling products and services such
as food, drink and entertainment as opposed to the restricted
range of products available in a betting shop. We are not opposed
to competition, but the playing field must be levelled in order
to ensure that this is fair competition. We are particularly concerned
on the impact that this will have on the smaller bookmakers in
our industry and in certain small cities and towns some betting
shops will be forced out of business, denying that particular
location of the social ambience provided by a betting shop.
REGIONAL CASINOS
We are pleased that the Committee is devoting
further time to this subject. It is an important public policy
issue and also offers attractive commercial opportunities for
UK and overseas companies. We welcome the way that policy has
been developed as we believe that the investment opportunities
and commercial rewards can be equally accrued from any company,
based in or outside of the UK and considering a move into this
area. We also welcome the fact that policy has been developed
in such a way that being an existing operator does not preclude
or disadvantage you from opening a new regional casino.
Hilton has a number of hotels across the UK,
employing over 20,000 people. This includes a number of hotels
in London and also in Blackpool, Brighton, Newcastle, Glasgow,
Edinburgh and Cardiff. In light of our existing portfolio, we
are keen observers of the debate on regional casinos and may wish
to take full advantage of our position should the appropriate
investment opportunity arise.
As a major employer we are pleased that at the
heart of the Government's proposals for regional casinos is the
role of regeneration in the local community. Regional casinos
will naturally require a significant investment; this must be
of benefit to the local community, help local employment and be
part of a wider sustainable regeneration plan in partnership with
Regional Developments Authorities and Local Authorities. We know
that the Committee visited France and understand that they were
attracted by the way in which the French run their regional casinos.
We believe that this model will achieve the political objectives
that the Government has set delivering strong central control
over the number of regional casinos allowed. We believe it is
important to limit the number of regional casinos as this will
control the proliferation of machines, especially Category A machines.
It has been predicted that there will be up to 40 regional casinos.
If this is correct this will mean that in a short period of time
we will have 50,000 Category A machines, in addition to all the
other gaming machines in small and large casinos. This will undoubtedly
have an impact on proliferation and problem gambling.
Regional casinos will also have a significant
social impact on the local community. The Committee should be
minded, as I am sure it will be, that a rapid growth in numbers
of regional casinos and machines would not be welcome. Furthermore
because of the scale of investment required to ensure sustainable
economic regeneration, having fewer but larger regional casinos
is likely to be the most attractive model for investors. This
will also help achieve wider public policy objectives—minimising
proliferation and problem gambling whilst achieving local regeneration
benefits as well as providing greater consumer choice. We recommend
that an optimum number of casinos be set by the Government in
order to give clarity to the market and help control proliferation.
We look forward to the Committee further developing
policy and definitions on this subject and the Hilton Group would
be delighted to contribute with further information should the
Committee wish.
July 2004
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