The City Council bid, which he champions, makes a host of projections on visitor numbers, turnover, effects on the economy and social implications. But the astonishing thing is that neither government nor council consulted the UK casino industry. Therefore, council projections are not based on any realistic understanding of how the industry operates.
Our appraisal, however, was drawn up in consultation with industry authorities to take account of factors acknowledged within the gambling industry.
Any company investing £200m is bound to expect a decent return. Mr. Betts seems to think the hard-nosed Las Vegas-based owners of international gambling corporations are investing here because of their charitable disposition. They will expect a minimum 15 per cent return, otherwise they may as well leave their money in the building society. Taking the £200m investment figure, 15 per cent annual return equates to £30million a year. The Gaming Commission show that British casinos have averaged 16.1 per cent profit on turnover for the past two years. If a regional casino's profit ratio is to remain at that level, it must achieve an annual turnover of at least £186million. Anything less is certain to deliver profits below average performance, and I suggest a regional casino would consider anything under average market performance unacceptable.
The joint turnover of the North's 42 casinos was £55,570,838 for the year to May 2006 (£55,330,936 for the previous 12 months, representing a year-on-year increase of just 0.48 per cent despite a 5 per cent increase in the number of casinos). It becomes apparent that the proposed £200m regional casino will have to turn over almost 3½ times more than the combined total of all these 42 casinos just to retain a reasonable level of commercial viability, in a market that has been flat for two years.
These projections tend to show that the operation will fail to reach profit targets and be closed by its owners as commercially unviable.
Neville Martin, Chairman, Sheffield Campaign Against Supercasino Expansion

Tired of deception over A levels
AS a physics teacher tired and angry at the yearly tedious deception by politicians over A levels can we a least establish some facts?
1. Most A level students work hard for their grades but they are not the ones to judge whether the exams have become easier or not.
2. They have been betrayed by succesive governments, especially this one, who know they have got easier but persist in making statements to the contrary which all teachers with any experience know are false.
3. Experienced teachers, particularly of science and maths, can demonstrate clearly that exams have got easier simply by comparing exam papers from 10 years ago. This objectively shows that students are now required to know much less with much less depth.
MK Rolley, Sheffield

Boy showed a sign of respect for us
ON the way to my mum's funeral, we passed many people, most of whom took no notice at all. However, on Birley Spa Lane, we passed three young boys, who stopped, one removed his cap and held it in front of him in a very mature gesture. That brought a tear to my eye and a sob to my throat.
Mrs TA Saint, Union Street, harthill, Sheffield S26