Super-Casinos Investigation on Channel 4

Channel 4's Dispatches programme and The Observer have conducted a joint investigation on the dramatic expansion of casinos and gambling in Britain.

There is a programme tonight, 8pm on Channel 4, that reveals:

- A detailed list obtained from the Gambling Commission outlines vast expansion plans ... which are a contrast with government assurances that the number would be very limited
- Richard Caborn, the minister responsible for gambling, has admitted for the first time that the new gaming laws could lead to a rise in addiction
- In the last two years alone, the Gambling Commission has approved 90 new casinos. The total amount of new gaming floor space approved since April 2005 totals nearly 600,000 square feet, equal to an extra 10 Las Vegas super-casinos
- The commission is considering applications for a further 57
- Industry insiders predict there will soon be more than 200 casinos in Britain, double the number when Tony Blair came to power.

This wasn't front-and-centre in the 1997, 2001 or 2005 Labour manifestos, so I'm not sure what's driving it. There's no groundswell of feeling that Britain just wouldn't be Britain anymore unless we have more supercasinos.

A nationwide jobs strategy built around casinos? Jobs at what price?

There'd be a lot more tut-tutting if it involved other actitivies that led to addiction ... say, if Labour led a similar expansion in the tobacco industry after the Bernie Ecclestone donation.