The former england cricket captain Mike Atherton has written a new book looking at the history of gambling and within it explains his view of why Blackpool should not be given the rights in their bid to build the first super casino in the UK.

He argues it would be "remarkable" if the Blackpool beat the Millennium Dome to the coveted super casino licence. His comments included "Nobody really knows what the impact of a super casino will be, but if you look at America and Atlantic City in particular, there is certainly no argument that casinos automatically bring urban regeneration.

"Resort casinos are not particularly good neighbours for other businesses, because the whole point is that all the amenities are there in order to keep the punters inside. "It would be great if Blackpool did get regenerated, but whether that should be done by encouraging more people to gamble I'm not sure." Mike argues that the Government's only reason for liberalising the UK's gambling laws was so that it could reap the tax benefits, rather than using casinos as a regeneration tool.