Labour Conference 2004 in Brighton: Sun International's fake gambling debate
Captain Sensible | 28.09.2004 00:41 | Globalisation | South Coast
Everyone's a winner... except for the British public. Casino operator Sun International knows how to play the system, and unlike in the case of their customers, nothing is left to chance!
At this year's Labour party conference in Brighton, on Tuesday 28th September, Sun International is sponsoring a debate with the wholly disingenuous title "Gambling, regeneration, and social responsibility: can everyone be a winner?". Who's on the discussion panel? No surprises there. Sun International itself is represented by director Peter Byrne. And Lord McIntosh, the minister responsible for gambling, will also be on the panel to jot down Byrne's instructions.
The big prize that Sun International has its eye on are a series of 'mega-casinos' around the country - handily located in some of Britain's most deprived urban areas. But before this utopian vision can be realized, there are a few minor problems to sort out.
According to Sun International's CEO, Britain's gambling laws are out of date and are in need of an 'update'. He's referring to inconvenient regulations such as the one that requires new customers to register with a casino 24 hours before they can do any gambling, and the one that bans casinos from selling alcohol. Of course, these quaint old laws gets in the way of creating profitable problem gamblers and/or drunks. But not to worry - according to him, "the UK government had now realised the need to update these regulations, bringing gambling into the mainstream economy." Well, problem sorted then!
Birmingham is one of the cities that Sun is eyeing up as a site for a mega-casino. And so, surprise, surprise, the leader of Birmingham City Council will be also be on the 'discussion' panel at Sun's fake debate.
Never mind though - 'Professor' Peter Collins from Manchester University's Centre for the Study of Gambling will also be on hand. He'll inject a note of academic independence and rigour, won't he? Er, hang on, probably not, as in actual fact the Centre for the Study of Gambling is entirely funded by the gambling industry, and Peter Byrne from Sun International is Chairman of the Advisory Board. Oh well!
What about Lord David Lipsey, of the Social Market Foundation, the nut-job free-marketeering think tank that organized the 'debate'? Well, he's on the Advisory Board of 'Professor' Collins's Centre too - and is in charge of the privatisation of the Tote.
Naturally, in its publicity material for the 'debate', the Social Market Foundation doesn't see fit to mention these links between the panellists, giving an entirely misleading impression as to the validity and neutrality of the 'debate'. Do ya feel lucky? Sun International does!
See
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Labour_Party_conference
plus primary sources for the above:
http://www.smf.co.uk/site/smf/conferences/labour2004.pdf - Social Market Foundations programme of talks at the conference
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2211445 - Quotes by Sun International CEO about 'updating' the UK's gambling laws
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=563222&host=3&dir=81 - Possible locations for Sun's new mega casinos
http://www.gamblingstudies.salford.ac.uk/sponsors.php - Centre for the Study of Gambling sponsors and Advisory Board
http://www.gamblingstudies.salford.ac.uk/PersonnelCV/SponsorsCVDLipsey.php - Lord David Lipsey CV
The big prize that Sun International has its eye on are a series of 'mega-casinos' around the country - handily located in some of Britain's most deprived urban areas. But before this utopian vision can be realized, there are a few minor problems to sort out.
According to Sun International's CEO, Britain's gambling laws are out of date and are in need of an 'update'. He's referring to inconvenient regulations such as the one that requires new customers to register with a casino 24 hours before they can do any gambling, and the one that bans casinos from selling alcohol. Of course, these quaint old laws gets in the way of creating profitable problem gamblers and/or drunks. But not to worry - according to him, "the UK government had now realised the need to update these regulations, bringing gambling into the mainstream economy." Well, problem sorted then!
Birmingham is one of the cities that Sun is eyeing up as a site for a mega-casino. And so, surprise, surprise, the leader of Birmingham City Council will be also be on the 'discussion' panel at Sun's fake debate.
Never mind though - 'Professor' Peter Collins from Manchester University's Centre for the Study of Gambling will also be on hand. He'll inject a note of academic independence and rigour, won't he? Er, hang on, probably not, as in actual fact the Centre for the Study of Gambling is entirely funded by the gambling industry, and Peter Byrne from Sun International is Chairman of the Advisory Board. Oh well!
What about Lord David Lipsey, of the Social Market Foundation, the nut-job free-marketeering think tank that organized the 'debate'? Well, he's on the Advisory Board of 'Professor' Collins's Centre too - and is in charge of the privatisation of the Tote.
Naturally, in its publicity material for the 'debate', the Social Market Foundation doesn't see fit to mention these links between the panellists, giving an entirely misleading impression as to the validity and neutrality of the 'debate'. Do ya feel lucky? Sun International does!
See
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Labour_Party_conference plus primary sources for the above:
http://www.smf.co.uk/site/smf/conferences/labour2004.pdf - Social Market Foundations programme of talks at the conference http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2211445 - Quotes by Sun International CEO about 'updating' the UK's gambling laws http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=563222&host=3&dir=81 - Possible locations for Sun's new mega casinos http://www.gamblingstudies.salford.ac.uk/sponsors.php - Centre for the Study of Gambling sponsors and Advisory Board http://www.gamblingstudies.salford.ac.uk/PersonnelCV/SponsorsCVDLipsey.php - Lord David Lipsey CV
Captain Sensible
e-mail:
captain_sensible@fastmail.fm
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
Correction
28.09.2004 00:50
Grovelling apologies to Manchester Uni are clearly in order. Sorry.
Captain Sensible
e-mail:
captain_sensible@fastmail.fm
Alcohol
28.09.2004 16:13
First you can make an absolute PACKET by selling watered down spirits at inflated prices.
Secondly (and this is the truly ingenious bit) you get all your customers pissed out of their brains and then they'll practically GIVE you all thier money.
Like the good doctor says, "EVERYONE'S A WINNER". BRILLIANNT!!!!!!
Ozymandias
Massive chinese gamblers addicted to casino's
05.12.2004 11:31
All of these areas are full of chineses mad about gambling, they brought their bad style of life from Macao and Hong Kong. They will be huge black insects that early stage does not seem to harm the society, but when their populations in Britain are increased enough to destroy the cultural barrier of Britain and Britain's economy, Tony's present decision clearly will turn out as a disaster.
Higher Tax would be a tricky better strategy to collect more money for government, but it spoils the Britons permanently, to be very unfortunate. 'Is that reason why you suck into Chinese girls', a word from a tribute columnist sounds very cynical.
Mary Burrel