Agenda item

That this Council:-

(a)       believes that the clustering of betting shops in or close to deprived communities is being driven by increasing revenue from fixed odds betting terminals (FOBT) rather than traditional over the counter betting;

(b)       believes that this has encouraged betting shop operators to open more than one premises in close proximity to one another;

(c)        is aware of the growing concern in many communities about the detrimental effect this is having on the diversity and character of UK high streets;

(d)       is alarmed that people can stake as much as £100 every 20 seconds on these machines;

(e)       is further concerned that the practice of single staffing in betting shops leaves staff vulnerable and deters them from intervening if customers suffer heavy losses, thereby undermining efforts by the betting industry to protect vulnerable customers;

(f)        further believes that local authorities should be able to establish a separate planning class for betting shops and that they should be given additional licensing powers to determine the number of FOBT machines within existing and proposed shops and to require that the machines are modified to slow the rate of play and to interrupt when people play for long periods; and

(g)       calls on the Government to put local people before the interests of the betting shop operators and give local authorities the powers they need to respond to concerns from their local communities and stop the proliferation of FOBT machines and betting shops.