Brent Council is escalating the scrutiny of high street gambling venues by local governments, commissioning a UK think tank to explore their impact on British consumers.
The Social Market Foundation (SMF) will be tasked with reviewing the current rules and regulations with a view to presenting a case for making changes to the existing Gambling Act.
Cllr Muhammed Butt, the Leader of Brent Council commented: “Together with SMF we will set out the case for changes which put power back in the hands of communities and break the cycle of this gambling epidemic.
“For too long, the house has always won – with big businesses extracting ever more profit from our high streets, while furthering financial addiction amongst their players.”
In April, Cllr Butt authored a letter addressed to DCMS Secretary Lisa Nandy expressing fear that local communities are being overwhelmed by “24-hour slot shops”.
36 councils and two mayors, including Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, signed a letter calling for “key reforms of the Gambling Act”, which they believe has overlooked community-level concerns about gambling harms.
“Local leaders representing over 12 million people up and down the country agree with Brent that our high streets can do so much better than betting shops and bookmakers,” explained Butt.
In particular, concerns have been raised that adult gaming centres are concentrated in some of the UK’s poorest areas. According to The Guardian, a third of premises are located in the poorest 10% of neighbourhoods.
Within the letter to the DCMS, leaders called for six reforms to be added to the Gambling Review, including strengthening local authority control and considering local debt in planning decisions.
Brent Council is seeking to work alongside the SMF to change the “Aim to Permit” rule, which it says makes it hard for local authorities to refuse gambling licence applications.
“The goal of this research and our collaboration with Brent is to measure the real social and economic impact of clusters of Adult Gaming Centres and, where there is evidence of harm, to develop policy recommendations that empower communities to reduce that harm,” added Theo Bertram, Director of the SMF.
Although the Labour government has pledged to implement the remaining reforms of the Gambling Review, it has delayed plans to relax the rules surrounding high street slot machine shops.
Under the previous Conservative government, plans had been considered to allow the installation of higher-stakes machines at adult gaming centres (AGCs), however, these have been shelved by the DCMS amid concerns over how these establishments treat vulnerable customers.
As it stands, under the “80/20 rule”, no more than 20% of machines at AGCs can be category class B slots that allow stakes of up to £2 and jackpots of up to £500. The Conservative-led DCMS had stated it was considering adjusting the ratio to 50/50 or abandoning the rule altogether.
Responding to the news, John Bollom, President of the arcades trade body Bacta, expressed his dismay at the decision, inviting Gambling Minister Baroness Twycross to accompany him on a visit to an AGC and experience “the stellar work our AGC operators do to enshrine responsible gambling in venues”.
Bacta has repeatedly campaigned for a resolution to the 80/20 issue, arguing that a relaxation of the rules, as set out in the Gambling White Paper, will help stimulate growth in the sector and “contribute to the government’s growth agenda”.
