The Salvation Army and Methodist Church have issued a joint challenge to the UK's first ever 'super casino', the location of which is due to be announced Tuesday.
Numerous local councils, including Glasgow, Newcastle and Blackpool, have bid for the licence to host the country's only Las Vegas-style super casino and the panel set up by the Government to advise on casino locations is due to publish the successful bid tomorrow.
The two Churches have run dedicated campaigns against the Government's push for more casinos, warning that they will lead to an increase in the number of people with serious gambling addictions.
"We expect the Government to keep to their promises of proper monitoring and evaluation of the social as well as the economic impact of these increased opportunities to gamble," said Lieutenant-Colonel Royston Bartlett, Secretary for Communications for The Salvation Army.
"Unfortunately, evidence suggests that the new casinos along with the increasing popularity of online gambling and the general normalisation of gambling within this country, could result in many more people developing a serious gambling addiction over an extended period," said Anthea Cox, Co-ordinating Secretary for Public Life and Social Justice at the Methodist Church.
"The gambling industry and the government will benefit most from the huge profits of these increased gambling opportunities. We are challenging them to channel substantial resources to help those many thousands, if not millions of people who will experience problems," said Ms Cox.
The controversial new Gambling Act has cleared the way for one regional casino, eight large casinos and eight small casinos. The Salvation Army and Methodist Church are particularly alarmed by the super casino, which will contain hard forms of gambling hitherto unavailable in the UK, including unlimited-jackpot machines.
The Salvation Army in particular warned that machine gambling has highly addictive properties, and that the lure of mega-prizes would only further compound this danger.
