What the Sunday papers say

The Mail on Sunday​

• Casino operators banking on a gaming free-for-all are likely to be disappointed when the details of the Gambling Bill emerge on Wednesday. MPs and peers have reigned in measures that would have opened the way for Las Vegas-style resorts.

The Sunday Express​

• Fruit machines could be stripped out of cafes and betting shops when the new Gambling Bill is published. Senior Whitehall sources have told the Sunday Express that Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell wants to back tough measures to remove gambling machines from non-licensed premises where they are a temptation to children.

Editor Martin Townsend comes out opposed to a ban on smoking in public places. In his column he says: "The ban on smoking in public places in Ireland, makes me seethe. It's not the ban itself but the totality of it, the complete rejection of the smoking/non-smoking compromise, which still seems the most reasonable option."

The Observer​

• An attempt by women to win the right to join working men's clubs has failed. The proposal to overturn the 100-year old rule was rejected at the annual meeting of the Club and Institute Union in Blackpool.

The Independent on Sunday​

• Hamilton James, vice-chairman of Blackstone, the company that snapped up the £2.5bn pub estate from Scottish & Newcastle says there are more opportunities in the pub sector.

Plans to overhaul the UK's gambling industry could receive a setback this week when a Parliamentary committee that has been probing the legislation publishes its findings.

BetonSports.com, one of the US's biggest online gambling groups, is looking to take advantage of the new UK gambling laws by floating on the London Stock Exchange. The Sunday Times​

• Anti-gambling cabinet ministers have succeeded in derailing plans to liberalise Britain's tough gaming laws.
• Only three leisure companies made it into the Profit Track 100 league, which ranks Britain's fastest growing companies in terms of growth over a three-year period.
  
  Nando's, the Portuguese chicken food chain, came in as the sixth fastest growing company in the country with Berry Bros & Rudd, the wine and spirit merchant at 68 and Gala Group, the bingo and casino operator in at 89.

The first official "yobbery league table" reveals that the Northumberland port of Blyth is the place in England where drunken assaults are most common.

The Financial Times​

• Britain's most senior police officer has attacked government ministers who oppose the rapid introduction of identity cards, claiming the measures are needed now to combat terrorism and immigration abuses.