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Gambling heavyweights prepare for opening of UK

"It should be a fairly dramatic change to the landscape. I think there's tremendous growth prospects."

Paul Korolkiewicz, a partner in the leisure team at consultants KPMG

As Britain prepares to relax its laws to allow the opening up of Las Vegas-style casinos, foreign gaming giants and local firms are preparing to battle it out for a stake in an expected industry boom.

Compared with counterparts in many other rich nations, relatively few Britons visit casinos.

Most people looking to have a flutter have to buy a lottery ticket, bet online, join the white-haired brigade at the local bingo hall or brave the slightly unsavory surroundings of high-street bookmakers or amusement arcades.

"Only something like two to three percent of British adults have ever been to a casino," said Professor Peter Collins, director for the study of gambling and commercial gaming at Salford University, northern England.

"In France for example the number would be much higher than that, a bit more like 30 percent," he told reporters.

But change is in the wind. Proposed reforms aim to scrap existing rules requiring casinos to be private clubs that any would-be gamblers must wait 24 hours to join.

Casinos would also be able to advertise their services and offer live entertainment, betting, bingo and more slot machines alongside table games to widen their appeal.

And bigger is better in the eyes of the government, which announced earlier this month that new casinos would have to have a gaming area of at least 450m2 to discourage small high-street casinos.

"It should be a fairly dramatic change to the landscape," said Paul Korolkiewicz, a partner in the leisure team at consultants KPMG.

"I think there's tremendous growth prospects," he said.

"There's a huge, untapped market of people who either are put off by having to wait 24 hours to join [a casino] or just don't find the current casinos to be that appealing," he told reporters.

The casinos' share of the British gaming market is currently only about one fifteenth, or ?500 million (US$800 million), but is likely to soar to about ?4 billion given favourable reforms, estimates Collins.

Foreign players are already looking to get in on the action, even though the proposed legislation, due to be presented to parliament towards the end of the year, is not expected to become law for several years yet.

Kerzner International, which counts the 2,317-room, ocean-themed Atlantis casino resort in the Bahamas among its operations, has acquired a gaming licence for a site in the slightly less glamorous surroundings of Northampton, a former shoe-making capital home to the world's biggest boot and shoe collection.

Last month Isle of Capri, which runs 15 casinos in the US, announced plans to develop a casino and entertainment complex in Coventry, central England.

But experts said that there was still room for British companies to benefit from the expected industry boom.

US operators Harrah's Entertainment and Rival MGM Mirage are already tapping local knowledge through partnerships with British peers.

"The British firms clearly know their market very well, but they will need to respond to the challenge that's given by the know-how and expertise of some of the major international players," said Korolkiewicz.

And some operators are reportedly looking to combine the appeal of gambling with another addictive pastime: football.

Casino operators have apparently approached several English clubs including Manchester United and Chelsea about teaming up to open casinos on their grounds.

But with so many companies rubbing their hands in hope of cashing in on a casino industry boom, it might not just be hapless punters who lose their shirts.

"It might become highly competitive, but that's what markets are supposed to do, they're supposed to sort out winners and losers so that the consumer benefits," said Collins.
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