AEG apologises to cleric for claiming support in its Millenium Dome casino plan

29.08.2006, Lesen Sie hier den Bericht über «AEG apologises to cleric for claiming support in its Millenium Dome casino plan»

The row comes ahead of the first public hearings on the tender process (UK).- The firm behind plans to build a casino at the Millennium Dome is understood to have apologised for wrongly claiming local church leaders backed the plan. Officials from Philip Anschutz’s AEG group sent documents to the government purporting to be from local clergy in Greenwich expressing support.

Greenwich Peninsula Chaplaincy complained its views were misrepresented, leaked e-mails reveal. The row comes ahead of the first public hearings into would-be casino venues. The Dome was the shortlist front-runner to be selected as the site for the British’s first Las Vegas-style super casino.

In the first round of judging released in July, it came just ahead of Glasgow and Blackpool, but the Dome’s application has been mired in controversy after Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was found to have stayed at Anschutz’s ranch. Prescott has repeatedly insisted that he has not been involved in the casino application process and that AEG has received no preferential treatment. This month it emerged that the company had already begun to build the shell of its proposed casino without a licence to operate it.

However, Professor Stephen Crow, chair of the Casino Advisory Panel, said later that he already knew of the work and that it would be taken into consideration at the selection stage. Leaked e-mails reveal a row between the Greenwich clergy and AEG. Documents sent by AEG to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport suggested the Greenwich Peninsula Chaplaincy was broadly positive about the casino plan. The one page submission was published on the DCMS website.

But the Millennium Dome’s chaplain, Rev Malcolm Torry, said the opposite was true. In an email to AEG, Rev Torry says: "The paper on the Culture Dept website looks like a letter from me and it isn’t one.” He concedes that in the original document the Greenwich chaplaincy agreed to serve the casino and its patrons if was built, but he adds: "Most of the content is what different sacred texts say about gambling: and they’re not complimentary."

In a second e-mail, the Rev Torry tells AEG’s European CEO, David Campbell, that part of the document submitted by the company misrepresents the collective view of the Greenwich Peninsula Chaplaincy. In its summary, the document says the chaplaincy "welcomes the creation of over 4,600 new jobs", but Rev Torry added "some of the new jobs, because of their content, are not in fact welcomed by some faith communities".

In a reply, Campbell says: "I cannot excuse the fact that this summary should have been cleared with you. "I don’t know how this happened but it is a mistake and as CEO I am ultimately responsible and so apologise unreservedly to you and your colleagues." Rev Torry told the Guardian newspaper he accepted AEG’s explanation, adding: "I have no reason to believe it was maliciously done". The row comes as AEG prepares for a public hearing into its application on Wednesday.

The hearing will be the first by the Casino Advisory Panel as it opens a series of public examinations into the shortlisted venues competing to host the first super-casino in the UK. Further hearings will be held around the country this and next week to study proposals for a super-casino in Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester and Blackpool.

Only one super casino is initially being permitted under the terms of the Gambling Act 2005, to be selected from the provisional shortlist drawn up in May. BBC News

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