Brent MP launches campaign against high street betting shop onslaught

A Labour MP has called on the Government to empower councils to halt the rapid spread of betting shops.

Dawn Butler, whose Brent East constituency already has more than 100 gambling locations, has launched a campaign to prevent betting companies targeting the high streets of less affluent communities.

Recent analysis by The Guardian found that the number of slot machine shops in Britain has increased by seven per cent since 2022, with most open 24 hours a day.

‘Crisis’

Butler told the newspaper: “Nearly one person a day dies by suicide linked to gambling addiction. This is a public health crisis, and it’s time our planning laws reflect that and stop these gambling companies preying on communities that are often vulnerable and deprived.”

In a campaign video, the MP for Brent East asks: “Why are there barely any betting shops in Canary Wharf but rows of them in places like Bethnal Green? It’s not by accident. Aim to Permit makes it easy for betting companies to target less wealthy areas. It’s time to end it.”

The comments follow her recent Early Day Motion urging MPs to remove the ‘aim to permit’ clause in the Gambling Act 2005, which she said currently “restricts councils’ ability to reject applications for new gambling venues”.

Analysis by The Guardian also found that slot machine shops target deprived communities, with a third of them open in the poorest ten per cent of Britain and over half found in the poorest 20 per cent.

Regulation

In May, the House of Commons’ Health and Social Care Committee warned of the “serious harm” gambling can cause “financially, physically, mentally, and in some cases as a cause of suicide”.

In a letter to the Department of Health and Social Care, the Committee’s Chairwoman Layla Moran MP urged the Government to review the Gambling Act 2005 in light of the Committee’s evidence session on gambling-related harms.

Moran said the evidence the Committee heard “emphasised how prevalent and normalised gambling has become in society”, and it was “disappointing to hear” that the current preventative approach is solely through the gambling levy and “not through regulation”.

Gambling Commission figures estimate around 2.5 per cent of the adult population (approximately 1.3 million people) in Britain experience the highest level of gambling-related harm, while a further 3.5 per cent are thought to be ‘at moderate risk’ of gambling harm.