What if I was to tell you about an organised group that is grooming young people, ending in many becoming addicted to something that is even more potent than alcohol and drugs?
I hope that anyone who listened would be appalled and outraged, calling for the organisation to be called out and the Government to take action.
Yet this is exactly what is happening right now, out there. Slot machines have been found to be more addictive than alcohol and drugs. GambleAware have just released their report that highlights that nearly 90% of children aged 13 to 17 are being exposed to gambling content online. This, despite the legal age to bet being 18, making this a deliberate attempt to normalise gambling in the minds of young kids who are otherwise shielded from it.
The report warned that both mainstream UK operators and licensed sites are promoting newer or unregulated products associated with video games – such as skins betting and loot boxes that essentially mimics the addictive nature and process of gambling.
Some 86% of young people say that more should be done to teach them about gambling risks
And with 86% of young people saying more should be done to teach about gambling risks, no one can deny it is time for action.
Unfortunately, communities feel powerless because the law gives betting firms the upper hand. But a simple change could transfer power to the people.
Walking down 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 and so-called bingo venues. I write ‘so-called’ here for a reason: people over the age of 30 will not recognise this new Bingo club. It is filled with what they call B3 Fixed Odd Betting Terminals where you can lose £20 in less than a minute.
I have spent the summer talking to people in and around London and I know that, in areas where high streets are flooded with them, people have had enough. This is why I am pushing for a change in the Gambling Act 2005, which is now very badly out of date. I also raised this at the first Prime Minister’s Questions after the summer recess on 3 September 2025.
Ministers need to give local authorities and local people greater power to tackle this issue and reclaim our high streets. Currently, billionaire-owned overseas corporations have far too much influence, and local politicians and people have very little to none. That needs to change.
It’s time to raise gambling taxes. Some argue that gambling already does its bit by raising around over £3 billion a year for the UK economy. But as Gordon Brown, a former Labour chancellor and prime minister, recently pointed out, it is a wildly under-taxed industry. With just a very modest tax increase, we could raise £3 billion a year and lift half a million children out of poverty - an argument recently made by the IPPR think tank.
This is a growing national problem, but my constituency of Brent has it particularly bad. We have the second highest concentration of gambling shops in the country, with 81 licensed gambling establishments. Guess where I found precisely zero gambling shops? Hampstead, one of the richest areas of London.
Having so many clustered together in one of the most economically-deprived areas of Brent, I routinely object to new applications, but those objections are always ignored. Why? Because the Gambling Act 2005 has a clause called “aim to permit” that essentially means local authorities are required to permit them, or face costly court cases money that councils can’t afford.
So – put simply – if we scrapped this clause, the views of local residents and MPs would carry a lot more weight, and that would almost certainly result in fewer gambling shops. Which would be a good start if nothing else.
I met a gambling addict who told me he wished betting shops didn’t exist
Walking the streets this summer, I asked constituents to design their ideal high street – not one of them included a gambling shop, or even a bingo hall. 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 stepped out of. But no. 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.
As a rebuttal to my campaign, the industry would 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 for areas of the country with betting shop after betting shop on their local high streets. The honest truth is that the industry is still making such huge sums of money on the backs of the poor, otherwise why would they flood our poorest high streets with betting shops?
That is why I am so proud of Brent council, which has led on a campaign along with 40 other UK councils, mayors and other organisations, calling for urgent gambling reform.
GambleAware has shone the light on the scary prospect of our young children being systematically groomed by the industry. We are at a crossroads and gambling reform is only the beginning of our public health crisis.
With approximately more than one person every day dying of a gambling-related suicide, particularly in young men, it’s clear that it is also an economic and moral emergency. According to Public Health England, problem gambling costs the UK economy £1.05-£1.77 billion 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 number 1479 on high street gambling reform to highlight the issue. I have also applied for a back-bench business debate in the Commons.
Many campaigners have fought this fight in isolation, often fighting their own addiction or that of a loved one like Wendy Hughes, Jackie Olden’s Mum, who was told to gamble every day by her employer when she worked in a betting shop, which created her addiction. And towards the end of her life, she gambled on a slot machine for 16 hours straight and ended up losing £1,981, Merkur were fined £95,000 as a result for social responsibility failings. Clearly, we need to do something to break this cursed chain.
Dawn Butler is MP for Brent East
