BLACKPOOL is gambling on exclusive pilot status as the first resort casino in England -- enabling it to act as a pioneering blueprint for further developing resort casinos across the country.

Blackpool Challenge Partnership and council chiefs presented evidence to the Government on Tuesday (June 11) saying that pilot status would transform the resort into a world class tourist destination attracting much-needed foreign visitors and investment.

The in-depth presentation claimed that "Blackpool, being a self contained area that already has a large influx of visitors, will be able to determine what the overall effect of resort casinos and gaming expansion will be in a controlled manner."

During the meeting the partnership also pressed for measures to pump gambling revenue back into the local community for regeneration, protect vulnerable groups (especially children) from the effects of gambling, prevent too many small casinos springing up by increasing the minimum size of resort casinos and to introduce planning use restrictions to avoid the emergence of gambling "sheds".

Alan Cavill, Blackpool Challenge Partnership manager and head of economic development at Blackpool Borough Council, said: "We feel we got our message across. I think the mere fact that we were invited to give evidence to the select committee means they are taking what we are saying seriously. We feel they heard what we had to say."

This week's meeting is just one step in the legislative process. The select committee will hear more evidence over the next few weeks and could publish its report of recommendations before Parliament rises for the summer.

If that is the case, reforms could be on the legislative agenda at Westminster as soon as this autumn.

Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden, who sat in on Tuesday's meeting, said: "As is the case with select committees, they were asking some fairly sharp questions about what Blackpool hoped to get out of resort casinos."

But he said Blackpool had put a good case and would now have time to consider how funds could be gathered from casino profits to help regeneration and benefit the community.

The Bishop of Blackburn is also backing plans for Blackpool to be the testing ground for resort casinos.

The Rt Rev Alan Chesters said: "Blackpool should benefit from a local levy of gambling profits if hotel casinos are developed in the resort.

"But casino companies should also provide adequate resources for the care of gambling addicts and their families."

The Bishop, whose diocese includes Blackpool, and who carried out a fact-finding visit to the American casino resort of Biloxi and Las Vegas, added that local levies on gambling profits were common and beneficial in America.

The Bishop also called for local planning regulations to be in place to control gambling development. He went on to say: "It is clear that Blackpool needs a massive injection of capital to transform what it now is into the resort it could and should be. Without that, the spiral of decline and the evil of social deprivation will continue.

"For me -- and I stress that this is a personal view -- the hotel casino proposal for Blackpool seems to present what I would describe as a lesser of evils. I wish there were other options on the table, but presently I am not aware of others which would bring so much new investment and potential employment.

"Blackpool really does need to rediscover the total experience of being a seaside resort with significant conference facilities. This may seem rather pragmatic, but the vision is for a town in which the vast majority of people can live without the damage to individuals and families which poverty presently brings."