High court to decide on casino wrangle

You know sometimes that casinos are like buses in that you wait ages for one to come along and then two show up at the same time. Except in Scarborough, one of the casinos will be prevented from opening in a legal wrangle that has all the way to the High Court. Yes, the High Court will no doubt be aware of many casino issues and the legality of gaming and gambling itself will often come under scrutiny from time to time but this local issue has escalated and the fact that no side wants to back down, nor does the local authority want to make a decision, means that it has to go to the highest point in the land to be resolved.

High demand to run a casino

Nikolas Shaw Ltd already have a presence in the local area as they own the Opera House Casino, a popular spot in the region. They were considered by many to be the obvious choice for the new venture and they applied for the licence for Scarborough when the Government handed out the increased number of licences back in 2007. Yes, four years on and this is still rumbling on, showing how slowly some things can move in the world of grants and licences.

Competition is often healthy

However, Apollo Leisure also owned property and ventures in the area including the Scarborough Open Air Theatre, and they saw this licence as an ideal opportunity to add a casino to a new development that was being planned at North Bay. Both parties felt they had a strong case to the licence and debated as such at the local council meeting and with local residents.

At the time, the local council decided that both of the applications would be allowed to proceed to the second stage of the process but Nikolas Shaw Ltd launched an appeal against this ruling. Even though they had been granted progress to the 2nd round, they were not impressed with the fact that Apollo Leisure had also been rewarded with this access and they launched an appeal on procedural grounds. The appeal was dismissed but this was not taking in good faith and acceptance by Nikolas Shaw Ltd. The company are now taking their appeal to the High Court and even though an early decision would have been of benefit for all parties, this case looks set to drag on for a lengthy amount of time.

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