ALL BETS OFF FOR WOLVO, SOLIHULL CASINOS

29-03-2007

Wolverhampton's council leader has launched a withering attack on the Westminster politicians who've scuppered the city's ambition to host a major new casino. A vote in the House of Lords last night also means plans for a casino in Solihull - probably at the NEC - are in disarray.

Roger Lawrence, who heads Wolverhampton's local authority said, “they've not only moved the goalposts, they've taken the pitch away.

And he said that regeneration in the area had been held back by “politicians pissing about in Westminster.”

His frustration is understandable. Wolverhampton and Solihull both have played by the rules of the game; they've both applied for permission to have one of the new generation of medium-sized casinos and were both successful according to rules laid down by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

All that remained was for the list of “winners” to be approved in both houses of parliament.

That came unstuck because of the ongoing row between Blackpool, which failed to win the nomination for Britain's only super-casino and Manchester which pipped them at the post.

Their little local squabble erupted when David Cameron who had previously supported the government on this issue saw a chance to embarrass Tony Blair, and removed the whip from Tory MP's.

This led to intensive lobbying in the Commons which eventually narrowly backed the legislation; but it took the heat off the peers, some of whom were already agitating against it. And it was their vote against which sunk the plan.

If this makes the government sound like innocent victims, it's not meant too.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell who admitted today that she “has no Plan B” could have removed the Blackpool v Manchester argument from the equation and pushed through the 16 other casinos.

Because she didn't, Wolvo and Solihull cold now miss out altogether.

Roger Lawrence said: “What happened in the House of Lords was a real unholy alliance between those who don't want gambling at all, those who wanted Blackpool instead of Manchester, and those who want a complete free market in gambling.

“The only consolation is that unlike some other areas, a casino would have been helpful in our regeneration strategy but it wasn't core of it.”

The legislation will now have to wait until Tony Blair steps down, but Gordon Brown is though to be rather less enthusiastic, and it's possible the casino plans could be scrapped altogether.

In other words, all bets are off - although you don't need to be a betting man to spot that for the hapless Tessa Jowell this could well have been the last throw of the dice.