Archbishop Speaks Out on Supercasinos

The Archbishop of Canterbury has voiced concern over problem gambling after yesterday's announcement from the Casino Advisory Panel that the lone supercasino licence had gone to Manchester.

Dr Rowan Williams said that research figures made it quite clear that gambling was becoming a "more and more popular form of addiction in this country", and that "we must not underrate the seriousness of that".

"All addictions are imprisonments for the soul and therefore any form of addiction is something that ought to be of concern to the population at large and to the religious population in particular."

Dr Williams expressed concern over the potential for long-term damage in Beswick, Manchester, the site of the new supercasino and an area which he said had a long history of deprivation but was currently going through regeneration.

The licence will allow Manchester to build a venue for up to 1,250 unlimited-jackpot gaming machines. Meanwhile, licences for "large" casinos were granted to Great Yarmouth, Hull, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Newham, Solihull and Southampton.

The Casino Advisory Panel also granted licences for "small" casinos to Bath and North East Somerset, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lindsey, Luton, Scarborough, Swansea, Torbay and Wolverhampton.

The Archbishop said: "Although, indeed, this development has been greeted in Manchester as a contribution to regeneration, I'm very concerned that we can't think of better ways of regenerating deprived areas than by developing within them institutions which may well contribute to the material and spiritual deprivation of the area in the long term."

Dr Williams called for the vigorous controls on the message being sent out on gambling, as he voiced particular concern over the attraction of gambling to children and young people.

"I'm concerned about the messages that are being sent out; about the messages that are being sent out about gambling and children which will need to be controlled very, very vigorously."

The Anglican Bishop of Hulme, Stephen Lowe, told Channel 4 News meanwhile: "These facilities are alongside some of the poorest communities and there is every evidence to suggest that actually gambling addiction follows the development of casinos - a massive rise in gambling addiction.

"These communities are already vulnerable. Do we really want people to be going in to the 1,250 slot machines that are going to be in this facility before they go into Asda/Wal-Mart for their weekly shop? Frankly, there is evidence to suggest that people will go hungry because of these sorts of facility and that's not a better Britain."