TRADITIONAL bingo halls could be changed forever if massive casinos are given the go-ahead for Blackpool, a leading industry figure has warned.

Sir Peter Fry, chairman of the Bingo Association, told the Joint Committee on the Draft Gambling Bill that up to 140 of the 700 large bingo halls could become casinos.

They would, he warned, use bingo as a 'loss-leader' and encourage players to try their hand at more addictive slot machine games.

Citing economic reports from KPMG and Ernst and Young, Mr Fry warned that bingo hall takings could drop by 30 per cent and 80 halls could close completely if casinos have the same devastating effect on bingo as the National Lottery had on the football pools.

"Let us be quite realistic," he told the committee: "If you are a large scale, American casino operator, what you want is people through the door. You are not worried too much about how you get people through the door; you want them to come and play your hundreds or thousands of machines. We fear that bingo might end up a loss leader.

"Secondly, we would expect that the kind of bingo being played would change. If you are a casino operator, you do not want people to come in, sit down and spend all night playing bingo. You only have to go into any major casino in America. If you want to go to any other part of the casino, you have to walk past where the machines are.

"That is a deliberate, commercial ploy and I do not blame them. We think there would be shortened games of bingo, perhaps on some kind of machine.

"We do not think that what the average person imagines when they see bingo in the traditional bingo hall would necessarily be the kind of bingo played in the future."

Blackpool Council's head of planning was grilled by committee members over the resort's casino plan as he appeared before the committee last Thursday. He said that large-scale casino development would help stretch the season and make the economy more sustainable.

Questioned by Southport MP, Dr John Pugh, Mr Haslam told the committee: "At this time in Blackpool's history, I believe it is the only viable option. I also believe a downward cycle of decline, which has resulted in a number of resorts no longer having or deserving that description, is a process which is unrelentingly slow, it is death by a thousands cuts and critical mass is lost and then decline is rapid.

"Blackpool's slow decline will increase when it loses critical mass, and it is very close to that now."