When a Birmingham newspaper applied for details of an exclusivity agreement between Las Vegas Sands, Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Football Club under the Freedom of Information Act, the giant casino company protested on the basis of confidentiality and the newspaper was given only a partial version of the agreement. The paper appealed and the council appeal committee decided that it was in the interest of the public that the details be made known.

Las Vegas Sands immediately posted a legal challenge, in an attempt to prevent the local authority from releasing the agreement document. Its bid has now failed in the High Court but the company can now appeal the decision all the way to the House of Lords. The exclusivity agreement between the three main parties will remain in affect until 2009 with the purpose of promoting a regional casino at Birmingham City Football Club in Saltley.

Other bodies in Birmingham, such as the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, are pushing for a casino project at the National Exhibition Centre, where the Council could be expected to profit from no longer having to cover the Centre’s debts. A sort of ‘Heads we win, Tails you lose’ situation for the Council in the unlikely event that Birmingham is actually chosen as the site for Britain’s first ‘super’ casino. Whatever the final location, it is likely that Las Vegas Sands’s delaying tactics will push the agreement disclosure, if it loses its case, beyond the time it would be of much interest. (E-03.13.06)

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