The deadline has passed for bids to be handed in, but already there are four bids for each available license. 17 bids will be successful – one of which will be granted a license to develop and operate a Las-Vegas style ‘super-casino’.

The Casino Advisory Panel will now take two months to consider each of the bids before passing on their recommendations to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Tessa Jowell, whose department will make the final decision and be responsible for issuing the licenses.

Chairman of the Casino Advisory Panel Professor Stephen Crow spoke in public about the bid process yesterday:

“These proposals represent a lot of hard work by the people that have prepared them,. They all deserve nothing less than fair and thorough examination.”