There were distinctly mixed messages coming from the UK Government about the new 2005 Gambling Act casinos. At the time of The Business in Sport and Leisure Conference at Westminster in November, it appeared that the Government were intending to “lay the order” which would introduce the new-style so-called “Large” and “Small” before the Parliamentary Christmas/New Year Recess – indeed, apparently-informed opinion said the Order was to be laid before the House the very week after the BISL Conference. Then, suddenly, it wasn’t happening – now “not before the New Year” and so yet a further delay is added to the already long saga of this convoluted process!

When I think that it is now over three years since I and the other MPs involved in the Gambling Bill Standing Committee were debating all of these matters, (and the Government were doing their panic, and unprecedented, rewriting of the casino sections of the Bill, after it had been passed with the usual comfortable Blair Government majority) in Autumn 2004; I think pretty well all of us would then have reckoned that all these new casinos would be open for business before 2008 began!

While on the subjects both of BISL and Government muddles, I had previously thought that Brown’s new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, James Purnell MP, was a pretty smooth operator. This impression was confirmed in my mind from his apparently seamless transition from Blairite insider to Brown Cabinet Minister. However (as with a lot of wider matters Brownite, as you may have noticed!) the wheels seem to have come off somewhat.   First he had the embarrassment of his apparently having approved his “airbrushing in” to photos of a hospital visit he hadn’t actually arrived at when the photos were taken – but of more relevance to our industry, he pulled out of being the keynote speaker for the BISL conference, at almost zero notice, and didn’t even arrange a substitute! Having been involved with BISL for 15 years, I know the close relationships with Westminster and Whitehall mean this is a very rare event – and all the more surprising. On the morning of the conference, I had the amusing experience of watching more junior Labour MPs who I know, rushing off as soon as they heard of the let down, trying to ring their Whips etc to see if the Secretary of State after all could be got there, or a substitute found to read a speech, or something, all to no avail!

Of course, Cabinet Ministers can get diary problems – but this was a big blunder, given the importance of BISL as an organisation and the industry “big hitters” on the speaking programme and in the audience. Given that, on occasions in the past if someone couldn’t come, a Parliamentary Private Secretary had been sent, with profuse apologies, to read the Secretary of State’s speech, that was the least that should have happened this time. I suspect the Minister’s private office may even now not yet realise how many very senior industry figures’ noses they have put out of joint by this cock-up, which some might have regarded as a snub to a very significant industry, though I’m sure none was intended. My 15 years in Government and Opposition inclines me always to prefer the cock-up explanation to the conspiracy theory! Given that the junior Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, had, a short while earlier, also let down the 30th Anniversary Meeting of the Society for the Study of Gambling, with equally-little notice, and frankly a poor excuse, a pattern was developing. However, I was very glad that my good cross-party friend Gerry did show up, and spoke well (though with nothing new) at the Remote Gambling Association’s excellent AGM – which I was relieved about, as I was the “reply speaker” after him!

On a much happier note, the more recent Policy Lunch with Jenny Williams, CEO of the Gambling Commission, was far more successful – she spoke, as always, fluently and interestingly and answered questions with genuine information, not “stonewalling” – how refreshing! 

The Government/political/public affairs scene for our industry continues to be endlessly fascinating – I suspect there’ll be more to come from Europe as well as Westminster in 2008 – watch this space! In the meantime, Happy New Year to all Casino International readers!

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