CASINO hotels could gamble with the rest of Blackpool's holiday businesses by offering enticing give-aways warns BCAGE this week.

The anti-casino pressure group, Blackpool Coalition Against Gambling Expansion, says local hotels, guest houses, restaurants and even cafes could suffer if the resort follows Atlantic City's example and gives free hotel room and meals away to gamblers to keep them in the casinos.

A report published in an Atlantic City newspaper claimed local casinos gave away almost two thirds of their rooms last year and 13.7 million meals as a marketing tool.

Steven Bate from BCAGE said: "How can hotels compete with free meals and rooms? It's time for the leaders of hotel and business groups in Blackpool to come clean. Why have they kept these facts from their members?

"If Blackpool had got the gambling exclusivity they wanted there would be no problem. But with other resorts like Great Yarmouth becoming interested in resort casinos it gets competitive."

But Josie Hammond of Blackpool's Hotel and Guest House Association said: "It's unfair to compare Blackpool and Atlantic City because Atlantic City is approximately a third of the size of Blackpool and has 14 casinos. There is currently one casino hotel planning application at Blackpool Borough Council and I haven't heard of any others."

The man behind the resort casino vision, Leisure Parcs' Marc Etches said: "We are not concerned with building a £150m resort casino to give rooms away. And only 10 per cent of hotel space is to be dedicated to gaming. We will be concentrating very much on the leisure and conference market."