According to reports by several news agencies and gambling authorities, we can expect to see a wave of bigger UK casinos over the next few years, with as many as a dozen projects currently in the pipeline and plenty of room for expansion in terms of the economy. Estimates state that the planned casinos could bring in as much as £250 million a year, as well as paving the way for even larger casino complexes in the future.
There had been a plan to have Las Vegas super casinos in London back in Tony Blair’s days as Prime Minister, which he enthusiastically backed, but since then there has been a shift in attitude and Gordon Brown cancelled the plans when he took over from Blair as leader of his party and indeed the country. If it had gone ahead, it would have seen the introduction of thirty super casinos throughout the country, each one having one thousand two hundred and fifty slot machines as well as no limits on the jackpots, with large hotel complexes linked to them. There were to be another fifty to one hundred large casinos, and though a few large casino plans were continued under Brown everything else was scrapped.
It was the Gambling Act of 2005 which allowed eight large casinos to be planned, with the first of these having opened in Stratford, East London, in December 2012. A large casino is defined as having up to thirty gaming tables and one hundred and fifty slot machines, with jackpots capped at £4,000. The other casinos will open in Hull, Milton Keynes, Middlesbrough, Southampton, Solihull, and Leeds, with room for more to be added should these prove to be as successful as it is hoped. Small casinos are also planned, with the limits of forty five table games but only eighty slot machines, jackpots capped at the same figure again. The coalition sees this as a great way to rejuvenate the authority, so we could see a slew of new casino plans in the very near future as these projects go ahead.