Scarborough casino licensing competition to continue after challenge dismissed

A challenge to Scarborough Borough Council’s Stage 1 casino licensing decision under the Gambling Act 2005 has been rejected.

The council had made a provisional decision on 15 August to grant to Apollo Resorts and Leisure, which runs the Open Air Theatre in the town.

The challenge was brought by Nikolas Shaw Limited, which operates an existing casino in Scarborough called the Opera House.

Nikolas Shaw attacked the council's decision to allow Apollo to amend its application.

Apollo’s scheme proposed a casino on the top floor of a commercial building. However, its application did not specify how many floors the building would contain. There were also a number of technical defects.

Nikolas Shaw argued that there was no power to amend under the Gambling Act 2005 and that if there was, it should not have been exercised to permit amendment in this case.

District Judge Richard Blake dismissed the claim. He applied the judgment of Lord Woolf in R v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Jeyeanthan and Others [2000] 1 WLR 354 and held that there was an inherent power to permit amendment in furtherance of the council’s duty under section 153 of the Gambling Act 2005 to “aim to permit” the application.

The District Judge said he could find no fault with the way the council had exercised its discretion.

Nikolas Shaw had also challenged the council’s decision to rule out as irrelevant the representations of a number of interested parties. However, the District Judge ruled that since those interested parties had not joined in the appeal he had no power to rule on the issue.

The ruling means that stage 2 of the casino licensing competition – between Nikolas Shaw and Apollo – can now proceed.

Philip Kolvin QC represented Scarborough in the proceedings, instructed by Mark Robinson of the council’s legal team.