Building a casino in Hertsmere would help avoid future council tax hikes, councillors said this week.

The borough's executive councillors will discuss whether to apply for a licence to run a casino on Wednesday March 29, after the council's licensing committee recommended it last week.

Under new gambling laws, which come into force next September, councils will share power to issue gambling licences with the new Gambling Commission. At the moment they are issued by judges.

Chairman of Hertsmere's licensing committee Councillor John Donne said the fact that gambling can become a damaging addiction should not deter the council from applying to run its own.

"It's something that we should certainly consider," he said.

"We can't look at it like that negatively. This is why the Government has made it so easy they don't consider it a problem. As it's legislation we've got to go along with it and take advantage of it. It would depend on how it's run, of course."

Labour Group leader Councillor Leon Reefe said it was up to individual Labour councillors to decide their own viewpoint on a potential casino, but he personally backed the idea.

"You've got to be in it to win it, so to speak," he said.

"I'm not sure how it would be physically done, but there are other towns and cities in Europe that run and own their own casinos, and people benefit because they don't have to pay any council tax."

He suggested that the plot of council-owned land in Elstree Way, currently under consideration for a hotel, would be an ideal location, and could incorporate a new theatre to replace the one formerly on the site.

"If we actually had ownership of it, not only could it fund the running of a community theatre, but the vast majority of council tax," he said.