Walking down their local high streets, people in Britain are increasingly unlikely to come across a local butcher, baker or grocery shop, and more likely to find betting shops, casinos, adult gaming centres (AGC) and so-called bingo venues, where traditional bingo is muscled out by money-sapping slot machines. These establishments are taking over our town centres at an alarming rate. From talking to my constituents in Brent, west London, and residents across the capital, I know that people have had enough.
That’s why this summer I have launched a campaign for urgent reform of our gambling laws. Ministers must give local authorities and people greater power to tackle this issue and reclaim our high streets. Currently, billionaire-owned overseas corporations have too much power, and local people have none. That needs to change. And it’s time to raise the gambling tax. As Gordon Brown, a former Labour chancellor and prime minister, recently pointed out, it is now an under-taxed industry. With a modest increase we could raise £3bn a year.
It’s a national problem, but as an MP, I see it locally. The explosion in gambling premises is a huge problem in Brent, which has 81 licensed enterprises. With so many already here, I routinely object to new applications, and those objections are routinely ignored. Why? Because of the Gambling Act 2005 which has a clause called “aim to permit” that essentially means local authorities have to allow them, or face court cases which cost money that the councils can’t afford.
There is an answer to this. If we deleted the aim to permit clause, the views of local residents and MPs would carry more weight, and that would result in fewer gambling shops.
Of that I’m sure. In Wembley, in the shadow of the world famous stadium, we have 11 gambling centres within 0.3 miles. One double-fronted soon-to-be-opened shop close by has already been graffitied with “stop opening gambling shops in deprived areas”.
I’m persuaded by the figures. In 2021, when I surveyed my constituents, 75% called for betting shops to be limited and 65% called for more council licensing powers. But just as much, I am motivated by the accounts they give, of which this is one example. “Gambling destroyed my family and our relationship with my father. I know that he still has the same addiction,” one contributor said. “This addiction caused financial loss (to a huge degree) and mood swings from him. His promises, that he will stop … or that he has stopped, were always just empty.” The effects, the respondent said, are wide and lingering. “I don’t gamble at all due to what I saw it do to my father, and I always feel nauseous when I see any gambling stores on our high streets. I see the people hanging around them. It brings too much back.”
More recently, when I asked constituents to design their ideal high street, not one of them included a gambling shop, or even bingo. The most moving and unexpected encounter was a meeting with a man I called Gambler A as he was leaving a betting shop. I expected him to design a high street with a betting shop, perhaps the one he had just left, but pointedly, he chose a gym, a library, a newsagent and a launderette. Where’s the betting shop, I asked him, and he was unequivocal. Gambling has ruined my life, he said. It is an addiction just like alcohol and drugs. He moved me to tears.
Some national figures point to a decline in the number of betting shops, down from more than 9,000 in 2011 to just over 6,000 in 2023. But that’s cold comfort to areas that continue to feel targeted.
That is why Brent council, in my constituency, has joined forces with 40 UK councils, mayors and other organisations, calling for urgent gambling reform. “We are standing up for our residents,” is how council leader, Muhammed Butt, explains it. “We know the damage that saturation gambling can do – to mental health, public safety and our local economy. It’s time councils were given the power to say enough is enough.”
Truly this cannot go on. With approximately more than one person every day dying of a gambling-related suicide, it’s clear that, along with everything else, this is a public health crisis. But it is also an economic and moral emergency. According to Public Health England, problem gambling costs the UK economy £1.05-£1.77bn a year. Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones, PHE’s national clinical adviser on gambling harms, is clear about where that money comes from: “Slot machine venues, particularly those open 24/7 … channel funds from the pockets of the poorest into the pockets of the richest.” The sad fact is that the house always wins.
In parliament, I have tabled an early day motion on high street gambling reform to highlight the issue with fellow MP’s who do not yet know it. I have also applied for a back-bench business debate in the Commons. We have gambling reform, the end of aim to permit, and enhanced taxation in our sights.
There have been years of talk, but now it really is time for change: time for communities to benefit from high streets that do not – by design and for greedy reasons of profit – suck them into addiction. We know the problem and we have the beginnings of a solution. The real gamble is to stand by and do nothing.
Dawn Butler is MP for Brent East
• In the UK, support for problem gambling can be found via the NHS National Problem Gambling Clinic on 020 7381 7722, or GamCare on 0808 8020 133. In the US, call the National Council on Problem Gambling at 800-GAMBLER or text 800GAM. In Australia, Gambling Help Online is available on 1800 858 858 and the National Debt Helpline is at 1800 007 007
