1. On the day the super casino was awarded to East Manchester against the forecasts of the pundits for either Blackpool or the Greenwich Dome next to London, a negative prison report came out amid the Home Office prison overcrowding fiasco along with disclosure that police numbers were declining with an increase in the "cheap, substandard police." There were a total of 17 new casinos approved today to be built in the UK along with this new super casino. If one were to take an overall look at government management, these refect a policy to increase crime and reduce the means to cope with it by the police and prisons.
Casinos and especially super or large casinos mean providing a base for organised crime with all its abuses in the community: money laundering, drugs, prostitution, political corruption and so on. This government is rolling out a massively large crime base of operation in this country. In addition, and perhaps far more important, is that gambling is a non-productive economic activity that creates a wasting of financial resources removing spending from other areas of the economy and transferring this wealth to a limited number of organisations and people who do nothing except make money on the false hopes of the mislead and vulnerable. The worst aspect is that gambling is addictive.
A broadcast report on BBC News24 described that Russia is eliminating all gambling casinos from urban areas and transferring such gambling to remote, isolated wilderness areas. It seems as though the anticipated addictive problem from casino gambling was double expectations at five million people. These changes are to expected be in effect by 2009 in Russia. There was an explosion of such gambling after the fall of the Soviet Union where it had been outlawed. Russia has found that casino gambling has been a disaster.
I cannot see how casino gambling can be called "entertainment." It provides nothing for the punter except the false expectation of winning something. The house is the only one who wins. What does a casino gambler do with winnings: play on to lose or walk away. If they walk away, when will they return? The punter gets nothing but spends money to pass the time. All this talk about jobs and opportunity is meaningless because the investment only goes toward an exchange of money from the masses to the few. What does the punter come away with? Nothing. It's just a means to pass the time.
Entertainment provides something to those who participate as an audience. It gives them something which they can take away whatever it is: enjoyment; a period of relaxation provided by genuine talent; exposure to other ideas and interests; and a sense of having done something. Do any of these accrue to the gambler? The casinos have separate entertainment venues to draw in the punters whom they want to gamble away their money on the false hope of winning. Not only does the punter lose whatever money is played, but the time is lost as well. Casino gamblers are losers in every way. Casinos provide every perk possible to those who will part with their money. As long as the punter plays, the casinos provide free food, drink and whatever to keep them going. It all comes out of the house takings. When the money runs out, the punter is ignored. I believe that these casinos and the path chosen to roll these out is an incredible blunder reflecting the absence of legitimate standards in this government especially when seen against all of its failures to deliver legitimate government services.
The Gambling Act 2005 allows playing poker for cash in pubs. The 17 news casinos will all be larger than existing casinos. There will be eight small, eight large and one super casino. That's a lot and a significant increase in casinos from the 138 already existing in the UK. BBC News24 broadcast these facts in a report: there are also some 45 applications being processed for new casinos before the new act came into effect. This country could soon have an almost 50% increase in the number of casinos including 17 of them that will be quite large, and all casinos can open 24/7 if the local council permits this. The actual increase in gambling space and accessibilty will be much greater. Gambling will also be allowed to be advertised on TV. Can there be anything more mindless than gambling and more senseless for a government to pursue? Where does the money originate and where does it go?
Mark Knopfler's recent album Shangri-La with its slot machine on the cover will take on a special meaning including songs like 5:15 am, Sucker Row, Everybody Pays, Postcards From Paraquay and Don't Crash the Ambulance giving "Shangra-La" a twist of irony with these songs intermixed with others like "The Trawlerman's Song," "Shangra-Li" and "All That Matters."
BBC News Tuesday, 30 January 2007, 12:04 GMT
Manchester wins super-casino race
 How the Manchester casino site will look |
Manchester has been chosen as the surprise location of Britain's first Las Vegas-style super-casino.
The decision is a blow for Blackpool and London's former Millennium Dome which were the bookmakers' favourites.
The licence will allow Manchester to build a venue for up to 1,250 unlimited-jackpot gaming machines.
Licences for smaller casinos were granted to Great Yarmouth, Hull, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Newham, Solihull and Southampton.
The Casino Advisory Panel also granted licences for the smallest type of casino to Bath and North East Somerset, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lindsey, Luton, Scarborough, Swansea, Torbay and Wolverhampton.
Manchester was a 16-1 outsider at the bookmakers to be selected as a test-bed for the UK's first regional "resort" casino.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6312707.stm
BBC News Tuesday, 30 January 2007, 12:15 GMT
Jail system in 'serious crisis'
 Ms Owers also warned about foreign prisoners being held too long |
The jail system is in "serious crisis" with overcrowding affecting rehabilitation of offenders, the chief inspector of prisons has warned.
Ann Owers said some jails have become "riskier places to manage" because of the overcrowding problem.
Many male prisoners had mental health issues that would be better addressed in secure hospitals, she said.
Crime reduction charity Nacro said Ms Owers' findings were as a result of the UK's "addiction to prison sentences".
There are nearly 80,000 prisoners in England and Wales, with some inmates held in police stations and court cells to ease overcrowding.
Tackling behaviour
Speaking at the launch of her report, Ms Owers said there was no easy way out of the current overcrowding crisis.
And she questioned plans to erect new quick-build units on existing sites.
 | Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader |
"As fast as quick-build units are put up they will be filled," she said.
Long-term planning from the Home Office "should have happened some time ago", she added.
"It is normally considered good practice to build an ark before a flood not during it," she said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6311629.stm
BBC News Tuesday, 30 January 2007, 11:59 GMT
Fall in police numbers revealed
 Officer numbers in England and Wales exceeded 140,000 in 2004 |
The number of police officers in England and Wales has fallen for the first time since March 2000, Home Office figures have revealed.
The total dropped by 173 officers from the end of March last year to 141,873 at the end of September.
The government has made recruitment a priority since the rapid decline in numbers during the late 1990s.
In 2004, the number of police officers in England and Wales exceeded 140,000 for the first time.
The figures also show a 35% rise, year on year, in the number of police community support officers (PCSOs) to 8,517.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6312837.stm
2. An interview with a Manchester official on BBC News24 caused me to send this Email below. This is a government who cannot manage the Home Office having failed to do so in almost a decade of power. This failure where it counts most with respect law enforcement and justice means that the roll out of a super and large casinos in the UK will open the door to crime which will not be controlled. Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, made similar comments about control and law enforcement in the House of Commons which were laughable against the current Home Office debacle. Even in the best of circumstances serious organised crime is uncontrollable when casino gambling provides them with a base of financial operation.
Tessa Jowell said before the House of Commons that controls will be the strictest in the world and that the UK will not become a "tricks of the trade" Law Vegas. Will smoking be banned from the casinos, or will casinos insist upon "oxygen" to keep the air clean. Tessa Jowell wants to ban "pumped oxygen" that keeps punters awake. We can all learn to live on the 79% of the atmosphere which is nitrogen anyway, right? How will this be enforced in the casinos? Free alcohol will not be permitted to punters to keep them loose and lubricated at the gaming tables and slots. How about five pence a drink or really low priced drinks? How will that be regulated? How about vouchers given out with the first drink for more at a discount?
Does Tessa Jowell really think that this will be enforceable and at what point does a discount become a freebie? What army of enforcers will it it take to make certain that there will be 24/7 coverage to ensure that oxygen remains at 20% of the atmosphere or no free drinks are provided? Will these controls be like the operation of the Home Office? What basis in fact do we have to believe that any such statement means anything? Politicians spout nonsense and expect the gullible to believe it like the gullibla casino gambler. Do they really think the voter is that stupid, or is it that they are that stupid? Alcohol consumed in the pressurised cabin of an airliner causes greater intoxication. Would "pumped oxygen" added to someone plied with free drinks knock them out instead of waking them?
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Subject: Manchester's "Social Responsibility" is So Much Talk That Cannot Be Backed Up or Carried Out
Date: Tuesday 30 January 2007 15:26
From: Gary D Chance
To: news24@bbc.co.uk
One of the great attributes of this country is that it has been free of serious organised crime (so far). It has been in specialised areas and not permeating the community as a whole. That will all change.
Now that super and other large casinos are being rolled out, there will be no defence against organised crime.
They control and dominate in the most brutal way, and it permeates the community so perniciously that no one can do anything about it.
When you give organised crime a money laundering machine like super and large casinos, they will be able to rechannel all their crime money (try drugs for starters) into the community.
They will go after real estate [property] and corrupt everyone in the process. Anyone who doesn't go along will be killed. That's the way serious organised crime operates in the community: they rule by fear.
I've seen this first hand and fought it for years in the 1980s. That's only part of my story. Another part has been my experience here for the past decade thanks to this Labour government.
There will be no social responsibility that will be able to work in the face of organised crime's brutality. These words are all so much nonsense.
Until now organised crime has been limited to specific areas such as drugs, but when they have the ability to launder money wholesale, this will attract organised crime from around the world who will muscle into anything that tries to be legitimate. There will nothing that can be done.
They will fight each other for control and one group will emerge in each area, or they will divide up the areas based upon relative strength. Expect the Far East gangs to move in but with western faces.
The community will be destroyed and businesses will be dominated and milked. Where organised crime chooses to go into business, they will drive everyone out and force businesses to buy their products and services. There is no choice. The cost of doing business for everyone will rise. Ask Peter Stringfellow why he went bankrupt in the US.
The community will function at a demented level since there will be no normal standards. Organised crime will be able to exploit everyone and get the rules and regulations established in favour of themselves. I've seen all of this happen first hand with people subjected to crime due to undermanagement and corruption. Nothing works as it should, but the politicians will always spout words to placate. They will be well paid to do so.
There will be too much money transferring to and in the hands of organised crime which will enable them to buy everyone including the police, law enforcement and the justice system. They will have all the latest technology and use it against everyone. This technology will be supplied by those in government who are corrupted. It's either be corrupted or be killed even by those on the inside.
Watch what happens in the future now. This country will change for the worse and never recover. Drop the Great from in front of Britain. Call it Weak, Dysfunctional Britain like the Home Office a precursor of the future that is so bad now nothing can be done.
******End of the Email******
3. Steven Pound MP appeared on BBC News24 in an interview to comment on the Labour government's justification for this casino activity echoing what Tessa Jowell said in the House of Commons this afternoon noted above. I take exception with what he said for the following reasons which I Emailed to BBC News24 and Steven Pound MP.
Global warming: this decision with respect to the casinos in the UK reflect a government driving in the opposite direction from minimising global warming. This contributes to global warming in a major way by opening all casinos 24/7 (if locally approved) and creating resort/leisure centres encouraging travel to these locations from abroad by air. This would be a benefit for those in the UK especially had Blackpool been chosen. East Manchester is not exactly a holiday venue for those in the UK. Unfortunagely, it most likely will encourage casino gamblers from outside the UK to fly in for gambling only. This would contribute to global warming. If any government is serious about global warming, this kind of policy is not the direction in which to go.
Terrorist targets: casinos also become potential terrorist targets and must be protected at a further cost and diversion of resources from either the private or public sector. It is unwise to create these casinos given the current situation in the UK when it already has 138 casinos by adding more that will be larger, conspicuous and open 24/7 (if approved locally) which provides a terrorist target.
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Subject: The Casino Again: Justifications by Steve Pound MP
Date: Tuesday 30 January 2007 23:27
From: Gary D Chance
To: news24@bbc.co.uk, pounds@parliament.uk
Steve Pound said on News24 that Labour was recognising the public demand for gambling by creating these casinos. He explained that we all knew what would happen in the event of prohibition.
In the first place there are 138 casinos in the UK with some 45 applications being processed before the new law came into effect as reported by yourselves. There is no prohibition against casino gambling. He is overstating the issue.
There is an Internet gambling problem, but that will not be changed in any way by adding more much larger casinos and spreading poker playing to the pubs while allowing TV advertisements.
Let's consider prostitution.
It does have a prohibited status, and there is a large public demand. Always has been. Prohibiting prostitution creates very serious problems as we have all just seen with the multiple murders of the prostitutes. There is a drug problem associated with prostitution as well as a health problem.
Why hasn't this government legalised prostitution throughout this country by licensing brothels and sex workers? This would truly protect everyone.
I think the answer is simple: money. There is far more money in casino gambling than from legalised prostitution.
It's also tragic that gambling will bring in unlawful prostitution with the women exploited and abused subject to ill health along with a public health problem. This could easily create a greater women trafficking problem into this country from around the world. It could add to the immigration problem.
The women could also have drug problems too which would be convenient for organised crime associated with the casinos. They could sell the drugs to the women keeping them hooked and enslaved while taking all their money before dumping them.
All around these casinos are an incredible mistake for the UK, but it shows that this government will trot out arguments about why it is being done which would be better suited to other activities that are currently prohibited.
The government does not heed it's own advice.
Also, gambling will create more problems in the society especially the gambling addiction problem.
******End of the Email*****