With so many politicians at local and national level weighing in on high street gambling venues, Nick Arron, lead solicitor for licensing firm Poppleston Allen, asks, are these complaints genuine, or a political bandwagon?

The Gambling Commission on 31 July published the official Licensing Authority Statistics 2024 to 2025 in respect of their duties under the Gambling Act 2025 for the regulation of gambling here in Great Britain. This includes statistics on inspections of gambling premises. 

The statistics are published at a time when the All Party-Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Gambling Reform is conducting an enquiry into the ‘Future of Gambling Regulation in the UK’, to assess whether in their view the current regulatory framework is fit for purpose and explore how the government can better address gambling-related harm whilst also responding to technological change in the evolving industry landscape. 

We also had, in the not too distant past, in April 2025, the letter from Councillor Muhammed Butt, the leader of Brent Council to the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, on the urgent need for gambling reform to address community harms which had 39 signatories of which 37 were leaders of local authorities. 

As part of the APPG gambling reform enquiry they are looking to analyse the suitability of the current gambling regulations, policies and legislative framework in the UK and they are looking to evaluate the efficiency of the existing regulatory landscape. The letter from Brent Council talks about communities experiencing a groundswell of land-based gambling operators, spreading along our high streets.

How do the Gambling Commission Licensing Authority Statistics 2024 to 2025 colour these claims? 

Firstly, it’s interesting to understand that of the 350 Councils listed in the 2024-2025 statistics, 172 had not conducted a single inspection of gambling premises in their area. Almost 50% of local authorities did not visit any AGCs, betting shops, bingo halls or casinos. These include a number of signatories to the Brent Council letter, including Glasgow, Manchester, Havering, Hounslow, Islington, Mid Suffolk, Peterborough, and Preston. Indeed, of the 37 signatories to the letter 14, or 38% had made no visits at all. 

The question you may ask here is why, if the problem is as described in the letter, they have not visited any gambling premises?

Each Licensing Authority must publish a policy statement which explains how they will exercise their powers under the Gambling Act 2005. All policy statements include a section from Licensing Authorities on how they will exercise their inspection function. The policy statement should set out the principles to be applied by the Licensing Authority in relation to inspections, and the Gambling Commission recommend that Licensing Authorities adopt a risk-based approach to inspection programmes and the policy statement should outline the criteria the Licensing Authority will use to determine the level of risk in respect of premises. 

Such an approach should include targeting high risk premises which require greater attention, whilst operating a lighter touch in respect of low-risk premises so that resources are more effectively concentrated on potential problem premises. Where Licensing Authorities have a local area profile their inspection approach is likely to be informed by it. 

What do these statistics published on Licensing Authority inspections tell us about the risks that premises pose? One might expect that with the perception of many high-risk premises, as described by the APPG and in the Brent letter, that there would be many inspections conducted. 

Apparently not. 

The bigger picture is that Local Authorities which undertake few, or no, inspections of gambling premises, cannot be informed about the operation of those premises, or understand the many approaches to ensure safer gambling. They do not understand how the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice are effective in venues to uphold the Licensing Objectives. 

They cannot understand how any of their own conditions on licences, imposed by the council, protect the concerns that have been raised. The increasing politicisation of gambling on our high streets is a concern to the industry. How can councils and councillors begin to have a balanced understanding of the promotion of the Licensing Objectives if they do not visit the very premises which are the subject of their concern?