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Gambling Act 2005 (Amendment)

I rise to speak against the desire of the hon. Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) for there to be an amendment to this gambling legislation. I do so despite the fact that I have a great deal of respect for the hon. Gentleman, who is a neighbour and colleague in the west midlands, as I believe that he is profoundly wrong to think that his constituency will benefit from such a development. If I may say so to the hon. Gentleman, I also think that he is being used somewhat as a stalking horse by his Government, to test opinion in the House on whether there is an appetite to change what was set out by the Gambling Act 2005. The simple fact is that it is not necessary to have this proposed legislation, because the relevant provisions in the Act can be changed by statutory instrument, subject to a vote by all Members. It might be helpful if I remind the House about how we got the Gambling Act 2005. When the Government introduced the original Bill, they intended to have a free-for-all on the development of casinos across the country, subject to demand as the operators saw that. As time passed, and as Members spoke out, along with other sections of society—including the Daily Mail, the Minister for Sport might be fond of remembering—it became clear that it would not be acceptable to have a major extension of such Las Vegas-style casinos across the United Kingdom. Given that a general election was imminent, the Government agreed to the idea that there should be only one regional casino, eight large casinos and eight small casinos, and that that would be the way that the measures would be proceeded with, unless the House decided otherwise, through a statutory instrument such as that which I mentioned. The Minister for Sport, who is in the Chamber, might remember that my hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr. Swire) asked him about the matter during Question Time just a week or so ago. The Minister said:"““The Conservatives decided to come back with the proposal of one regional casino, which we accepted because we wanted to get the Bill on to the statute book in order to protect the vulnerable in our society. That is where it now stops—at one regional casino—unless the hon. Gentleman says to the Government that the Conservatives want to change the proposal.””—[Official Report, 9 October 2006; Vol. 450, c. 11.]" I applaud the Minister’s remark to my hon. Friend, but although that represents the public face of the Government, their private face appears to be somewhat different. I suspect that the Secretary of State is much keener on a bigger free-for-all on casino development than the Minister is, at least in public. Following a meeting that took place between the Secretary of State and Coventry Members to petition her about a casino in Coventry, the hon. Member for Coventry, North-West (Mr. Robinson) wrote on his website:"““It was a very positive meeting. She invited us to submit early day motions and a ten-minute bill asking for Coventry to be included on the shortlist, and also to get the Government to increase the number of super casino licences from one to eight.””" Conservative Members and I reject wholesale the private view that the Government have expressed to Labour Members. Of course, the Government would like the number of such casinos to be increased from one to eight because they face the political problem of who the one licence should be given to. Technically, that should be a matter for the casino advisory panel, but we all know that Ministers have views on the issue.