Super Casinos in the UK not happening any time soon

A few years ago now the UK Government announced plans for a single Super Casino and invited bids from cities across the country; there was talk of using the Millennium Dome in London or building one at Blackpool which is already a centre for tourism in the country but at the end of the day Manchester won the bidding process only for the project to be shelved in early 2008 so where are we now? The thinking was changed and it was proposed to have large regional casinos rather than one huge one in cities such as Leeds, Hull, Middlesbrough, Great Yarmouth and Milton Keynes and possible smaller ones in places like Luton, Swansea and Scarborough, but has anything actually been done? Leeds for example was given permission  in February 2008 and at the time it hoped to start selecting the license holder by the end of 2009 but a few days ago the local authority said it did not expect to start looking for bidders until February 2011 and it hoped to issue a license before the end of that year. Some have suggested that the scheme could generate up to 700 jobs and even a possible site has been identified which is close to the Elland Road football stadium.

Leeds is not alone; in Wolverhampton the council has said it needs to review its gambling policy before it can issue any licenses which will take until spring of 2011. Again a possible site has been identified and in this case it is the racecourse at Dunstall park which would create the country’s first combined racecourse and casino dubbed by some a “racino”. It would seem that despite all the hype and the potential benefits not much is being done so maybe online casinos is the answer.