To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether any towns in the West Midlands have applied for super casinos; and if she will make a statement. (112000)

Coventry, Dudley and Solihull submitted formal proposals to be considered for the one regional casino permitted by the Gambling Act 2005, but were not shortlisted by the Casino Advisory Panel.

Dudley, Solihull and Wolverhampton have been shortlisted for the right to issue one of the eight large and eight small casino premises licences permitted by the Act.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of new casinos on other entertainment venues. (111968)

The Secretary of State established the Casino Advisory Panel to advise her on where the 17 new casinos permitted under the Gambling Act 2005 should be located.

The criteria against which the independent Casino Advisory Panel is making its assessment were set out in the Government’s national policy statement on casinos published on 16 December 2004. The primary consideration will be to ensure that locations provide the best possible test of social impact. Subject to this, the criteria will also be:

to include areas in need of regeneration (as measured by employment and other social deprivation data) and which are likely to benefit in these terms from a new casino;

to ensure that those areas selected are willing to license a new casino.

We will assess what the regeneration and other economic outcomes have been, alongside our wider assessment of the social impact of the new casinos, around three years after the issue of the first casino premises licence.