UK House of Lords Rejects Super Casino Plans- Poker Plans in Disarray

Plans for a "Las Vegas-style super casino" in the northern U.K. city of Manchester were voted down in the House of Lords this past Wednesday night, though it passed by a narrow majority in the House of Commons (elected members).

The plans, which were defeated by a 123-120 vote in Parliament's upper chamber, had also called for 16 smaller casinos across Britain.

Without the approval of both the House of Commons and House of Lords, the government's plans will need to be redrafted, since they cannot proceed as they now stand.

Britain today has about 140 small and medium sized casinos, located principally in major towns and cities.

Both houses of Parliament have already passed the 2005 Gambling Act itself into law, which included plans to add additional casinos to boost the economies in areas with high unemployment.

But the votes held on Wednesday were 'secondary' legislation, meaning legislation to put the new laws into effect. Specifically it was to allow the super casino location of Manchester and the 16 other smaller-casino locations to receive their new casino licenses.

Tessa Jowell, Culture Secretary for the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport in charge of the casino licensing said they would reflect on the negative vote before deciding how to proceed.

An independent panel's choice of Manchester, a city of 440,000 about 315 kilometres north-west of London, was contentious when it was announced at the end of January (click here for related PokerPages article).

Many expected the supercasino to go to depressed seaside town of Blackpool, which many felt could better benefit from the financial and social recovery that a supercasino would bring, or to the Dome in London.

Besides the rethink of the supercasino and 16 smaller casinos, there is also the question of the future Government's willingness to go through with casino expansion plans at all. That is something that Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell is well aware of with upcoming election in May which may bring a change of government who does not support casino expansion.

A harbinger of that forthcoming change came on March 21, when Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (UK's Finance Minister), proposed a hefty tax increase on small and large brick and mortar casinos during his Budget speech. He announced a top rate of 50% on profits over GBP 10,000,000, which undoubtedly was aimed at the proposed super casino and as a result could cause companies to rethink bidding on the supercasino license altogether (click here to read related PokerPages article).

Brown didn't stop there. He also proposed a 15% tax rate on "Remote Gambling" which wouldn't encourage offshore online gambling companies to become licensed in the UK while remaining offshore, much less to be lured to relocate to the UK.

So the race is on to see if the supercasino licensing mess can be sorted before a change of government kills it.

Poker players shouldn't buy airline tickets to see the Manchester super casino just yet.

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