A number of historical suggestions have pointed to the potential for Swindon to become home to a major casino, but none of the plans has materialised. With Swindon’s high street labelled as merely ‘above average’ in a recent study, the question needs to be asked: How do we revitalise the town centre? And would a casino really provide the economic injection our area needs?
First of all, let us just say this: If our beloved Swindon town centre was to get funding and/or planning permission for a brand-new major casino, we wouldn’t be completely against it. In fact, Rumours have been circulating for years that Swindon might be getting its own casino.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with slot halls, gaming rooms or the like when they’re developed and delivered correctly. The problem is, like most things on our high street nowadays, entertainment venues tend to pop up quickly and disappear just as swiftly. Take GBK for instance. After just three short years in Regent Circus, the burger chain is to close its doors in Swindon, as reported at https://swindonlink.com/7265/restaurant-closure-is-latest-blow-to-swindon-economy.
There’s no sign of any major movement in terms of a casino on the horizon, and with the weather now taking a turn for the worse, people are turning to sites such as https://www.miniclip.com/games for a fix of quick online gaming with lots of simple, easy-to-play games to choose from, while others head to https://www.justwatch.com/uk/provider/netflix for their movie or TV fix. Those looking for casino entertainment and not finding it locally end up turning to online offerings, with sites such as https://casino.betfair.com/c/slots featuring themed slots, some of which have progressive jackpots. Nevertheless, if Swindon was to welcome a casino to town, surely we deserve something built to last — something with prestige.
So how could a casino raise the status of the town centre?
Well, take Leeds for example. Anyone who’s been to the West Yorkshire city since January 2017 will have undoubtedly noticed the grand new Victoria Gate shopping hub. Located at its heart: the third-biggest casino in the UK. The venue goes so far as to describe itself on its website, victoriagatecasino.co.uk, as ‘The North’s Super Casino’.
The construction of that casino came after a number of false starts for the north of England — Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield were all at some point confident of landing a ‘super casino’. Years passed before the location and development of Victoria Gate was confirmed, but once building work began, the positive impact it was going to have to that part of the city became clear.
As for our town: a recent study by the Royal Society for Public Health available at https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/health-on-the-high-street/2018.html branded Swindon town centre as ‘above average’. The work highlights the state of Britain’s individual high streets by comparing and scoring the number of betting shops, restaurants, libraries, sports centres, cafés, tanning shops etc. in every town. Of course, above average is nothing to be ashamed of, but in comparison to the number of ‘best’ high streets boasted by our neighbouring towns, Swindon is lagging behind. So, if Yorkshire’s case study is anything to go by, it’s less a case of what a casino ‘could’ do for Swindon and more what it ‘would’ do for the town — and the wider region.
