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Terry Macalister in the Guardian newspaper writes that Gala Group of the UK and Harrah’s Entertainment from Las Vegas plan to invest £625 million ($1 billion) in the building of eight casinos in the UK, creating thousands of jobs. Anticipating the further openness of gaming rules in the UK, by next year the hotels and restaurants as well as the casinos will be popping up from London and, it is rumored through the Guardian report, “on the M6 corridor between Birmingham and Coventry and on the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh.”
John Kelly, Chief Executive Officer of Gala, said, “The casinos we plan to develop with Harrah’s will set a higher standard for gaming than anything we have seen in this country. I am confident there will be a change to the 1968 Gaming Act which is groaning and outdated and not working well. It is only a question of timing because there is cross-party support for change.”
Currently, gaming rules allow casinos to operate only as private, members-only clubs and they cannot offer live entertainment or serve alcohol at the gambling tables. Membership requires a 24-hour wait.
Even under these restrictions, Gala operates 28 casinos here, which have a combined membership of 1, 200,000 gamblers and employ over 10,000 people.
