A number of betting shops in Birmingham are expected to see a tighter regulatory regime, as council licensing chiefs have decided to impose a further crackdown on them.
Birmingham City Council has made a proposal for some alterations in its gambling policy to be made, with a requirement for risk assessment to be made locally when it comes to the applications for new bookmakers also included. The middle of the week saw the Licensing and Public Protection Committee being told that such a step would provide officers with more powers to suspend them in areas which have already been heavily densed.
Councillor Mike Leddy urged the rest of the council licensing chiefs to impose a limit on the number of betting operators which are allowed to operate in some areas. He insisted on using a similar way to the council’s so-called Cumulative Impact Zone (CIZ) policy, which puts some restrictions on the number of alcohol establishments that could be open in one place.
According to Councillor Leddy, the fact that no legal requirements regarding the number of such establishments, especially considering the fact that each one of them also being run as a betting shop, have been set. He shared an opinion that CIZ should not only be limited to drinking premises but to gambling premises as well.
Councillor Leddy further explained that there need to be steps aimed at limiting the maximum number of gambling premises which have a license to operate in certain areas in order for the authorities to make sure that people from the most disadvantaged areas are protected from spending much more than they can afford.
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One of the licensing operations managers, Shawn Woodcock, explained that every application filed to the competent regulators and authorities is redirected to his team for comment. Mr. Woodcock confirmed that in some cases, there might have been a greater concentration of betting shops in one area, but he further noted that a local risk assessment is necessary, because otherwise, his team would not have been able to oppose.
The revised policy now provides them with the right and opportunity to object.
Some members of the Licensing and Public Protection Committee shared their concerns about gambling in the region. Apart from that, some questions regarding the measures implemented by gambling shops for better protection of their customers have been raised.
Chris Neville, who is currently head of licensing explained that most bookmakers used a very “sophisticated” approach on their computers, but also warned that it would be necessary for a certain limit to be imposed on the number of businesses in certain areas. According to him, the large number of operators concentrated in a certain area can deteriorate problem gambling rates, as customers are able to simply go to a different betting shop in case they have made a decision to continue gambling.
- Author
Daniel Williams
