As we look forward to 2012 - the Olympics, the Queens Diamond Jubilee, the most important gaming exhibition in the world opening in London - it remains a source of deep frustration that the British casino industry is not recognised by the UK government as a legitimate and important component of the UK’s successful and growing tourism and leisure industry.
The gaming industry has provided hard, independently gathered evidence that it can provide around 5,000 valuable new and worthwhile jobs for young people, tens of millions in new tax revenue and a kick start for developments across the country with millions in new investment, all without any negative social consequences, but gaming industry development remains off the ministerial agenda. The benighted legacy of the media campaign against the previous government’s plans for expansion of the casino industry is enduring. Unwilling to risk the political bruising suffered by their predecessors - largely at the hand of the Daily Mail - rather than engage in a dialogue of development, ministers have cynically used ‘concerns about problem gambling’ as an excuse to distance themselves from the industry and do nothing. But there is cause for hope.
During the final sessions of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, chaired by John Whittingdale MP, important witnesses, including the former Secretary of State at DCMS Tessa Jowell MP and the then minister responsible for gambling Dick Cabborn MP, were clear in their evidence: in the final days of the last parliament casinos were the victims of the unintended consequences of a brutal political wash-up. They were also clear in acknowledging that casinos are the safest place to gamble in the UK, were not intended to be excluded and deserved to be better treated. This is the political endorsement of the position the industry has sought to promote through the work of the National Casino Industry Forum.
Though current ministers are not bound by the promises – let alone comments when out of office - of their predecessors, the evidence was so candid, honest and compelling; it’s hard to see how it will not drive the Committee’s final report to recommending change for the industry and harder still to see it ignored by current ministers. So we have a significant reason to be optimistic about the political environment for 2012.
Whatever the political outcomes, the British economy, along with many other European and wider world economies, has a difficult time ahead. The challenges UK industry faces don’t need rehearsing, but there are also opportunities; the Olympics, the Diamond Jubilee and the political and economic uncertainty and the insecurity in so many other parts of the world mean that the safety of the UK is a hugely attractive destination for both foreign and domestic tourists in 2012. Casinos in major tourist and ‘staycation’ destinations have significant opportunities to provide safe, fun, entertaining adult leisure and that’s why ICE is so important. ICE offers an opportunity for the UK industry to meet suppliers and competitors, to see innovation and to understand where the world’s gaming markets are heading. We know that if we don’t innovate, keep up and compete with international and online competitors, we risk losing market share.
Our objectives for 2012 remains to convince the government to let us deliver jobs, investment and healthy tax revenue by allowing us to grow, compete fairly, improve our businesses and, most importantly, to trust us and welcome us fully into the leisure sector.
