Tony Blair and Tessa Jowell were accused of misleading MPs over secret talks with American casinos bosses on plans to build Las Vegas-style casinos across Britain.
The Conservatives argued that both the Prime Minister and the Culture Secretary had failed to come clean over private negotiations to ease money laundering laws for the new casinos.
The claims came after official documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and published by The Observer, confirmed that officials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport asked the Treasury to consider the revision of the proposed European Union money-laundering regulations “to exempt casino members from showing ID when they enter the gaming floor,” thus encouraging American casino operators to invest in Britain.
American casino operators expressed concern that EU money-laundering regulations requiring “satisfactory evidence of identity” of any person gambling in a casino could reinstate a \’members only\’ rule the new laws were supposed to abolish.
The documents show \’clear discrepancies\’ with what Blair and Jowell told Parliament last November.
Conservatives have now asked for assurances that the legislation introducing \’super casinos\’ to the UK, would not weaken existing anti-money laundering laws.
A spokesman for the DCMS said the department had never denied talks with American casino operators.
“What we have denied is special favours or deals. There is no question of us ever putting the effectiveness of money-laundering directives behind the interests of casino operators, wherever they are from,” he added.
The DCMS in now consulting the Treasury to give casinos a choice between obtaining proof of identity from everybody on the gambling floor or just from those buying or cashing in 2,000 euros or more.
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