Concerns as biggest casino opens

Aspers casino expects to attract 10,000 people per week

Anti-gambling campaigners have renewed their attack on the industry as Wales's biggest casino opens in Swansea.

The £13m Aspers casino is expected to attract 10,000 people a week and see £4.5m spent on gambling over the course of the next year.

The Salvation Army fears it will attract problem gamblers who are often the most vulnerable members of society.

But Aspers said it has a training programme to help staff spot problem gamblers and take appropriate action.

The casino, which will employ 300 and have a gaming area of more than 45,000sq ft, is in the city centre's Salubrious Place development.

X Factor runner-up Ray Quinn is headlining the opening night on Thursday, which comes less than a week since new gambling laws were introduced in Britain.

I can understand people's concerns but I would be a lot more concerned if I was in the government about the online gambling that's taking place. Chris Holley, leader Swansea Council

The Salvation Army has criticised the changes, which allow operators to advertise on TV and radio for the first time, saying it feared they would "normalise" an addictive activity.

Major Peter Moran, divisional commander for the Salvation Army in south and mid Wales, said up to 370,000 people in the UK have gambling problems.

"There is evidence that shows the greater the opportunity, the more people are going to get into trouble."

He added: "Although this may be presented as an idea that will regenerate areas, actually there's no proof of that at this stage.

"In fact, most people are clear that it will probably create more problems because it's the poorer members of society who may actually be getting into trouble with problem gambling around the siting of these new casinos."

Council leaders said the casinos were well regulated

Richard Noble, general manager of Aspers, emphasised the difference between modern and traditional casinos.

He said: "The old-style venues typically were smaller establishments, usually quite smoky - the restaurants and the bars were just purely there to offer a service to keep people at gaming tables.

"We're looking the complete opposite. All our ancillaries within Aspers, our restaurants, our bars, they're all businesses in themselves.

"Where the old-style casino, they welcomed people who were there to game, we welcome people here to enjoy themselves."

Swansea Council leader Chris Holley said people should remember that casinos had existed in Swansea, Cardiff and other cities for more than 40 years.

He said: "We have to remember modern casinos like Aspers are not just a place that you go for gambling, there's facilities for restaurants, it's an entertainment venue as well.

"I can understand people's concerns but I would be a lot more concerned if I was in the government about the online gambling that's taking place.

"That's virtually unregulated at the moment you know whereas the casinos are very well regulated and run by responsible people so I don't have a problem with that and they're not new, they're just bigger and better."

Larger casino plans

In January, Swansea was one of 16 UK cities awarded licences for new larger casinos when it was announced that Manchester would be the site for Britain's only super-casino.

The plans were put on hold two months later when they were rejected at Westminster.

In July, the government asked the 16 councils awarded licences to confirm whether they had a "continued desire" for a casino.

The Aspers Casino, however, has not been built under that new licence but under separate existing legislation.