Joint Committee on the Draft Gambling Bill Written Evidence


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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