Remember all that controversy about 'Las Vegas style super-casinos' in 2004-05? If you live in Britain, you probably do. You may also recall the plans for deregulation of casinos which came to nothing. Gordon Brown abolished the plans for a large casino in Manchester when he succeeded Tony Blair.
Since then, little has been said about casinos. Anti-gambling campaigners have switched their focus to fixed odds betting terminals which offer virtual casino games in betting shops.
Seven year after the Gambling Act was passed into law, it's time to reflect on what was lost and gained. Why are more than a quarter of casino licences still unused? Why have 15 of the 16 casinos created by the 2005 Act still not been built? These are the topics discussed in my new report for the Institute of Economic Affairs - you can download it here.
1 comment:
Thanks for that report Chris. I was interested to see that online gaming was not as a bigger proportion of gaming that I had imagined.
Also, on the point about the ability for under aged people to gamble. I am currently writing (computer code) betting robots and I have spent the last two months just trying to convince a company that I am over 18 - a paper driving licence won't cut it. It was easier in the old days when at least you would only have to wait a day before presenting your self at a Casino! And as you rightly point out there are any number of offshore online gaming site that are far less fussy!
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