The last few months have seen endless mounds of paperwork for new and existing machine operators in all sectors, forced to apply for licences for operation, location and personnel. And as for Britain’s first super-casino? All that work, all those compromises, all those surprises when the Manchester bid won and then at the very last minute, Gordon Brown comes into power and hints at a complete u-turn on policy. Apparently a report will be published this month looking at the whole issue from a “Brown” perspective. What that will mean for the industry we don’t yet know. But it seems unlikely that the Manchester super-casino will get the go-ahead. It’s at times like this when one wonders why anyone bothers with the lobbying process, which takes years and years, when at the end of the day policy can be decided by a single person seemingly in a matter of weeks. Next month we will publish a special UK supplement in order to fully explore the impact of the new law and how it differs from the one we lobbied for.

Stephanie Norbury

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