Casinos in the UK should be allowed to operate up to 20 B2 machines, or fixed odds betting terminals, and casino licences should be portable, a new report from the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee states.
In its report published today, the committee said that the Gambling Act 2005 resulted in a “numerous inconsistencies.” It called for more power to be given to local authorities, with central regulation existing to ensure that high standards of protection for vulnerable people.
High street betting shops and casinos are currently permitted a maximum of four FOBT gaming machines, allowing stakes up to £100 and a prize of £500. As the most regulated gaming sector, casinos should be permitted to operate as many as 20 such machines, the committee said.
The committee believes that the decision as to whether a casino would be of benefit to a local area should be made by local authorities rather than by way of "central diktat." Any local authority should be able to make the decision as to whether or not they want a casino, it said. As a step towards this, existing 1968 Act casino licences should be made portable, allowing operators to relocate to any local authority provided that they have the consent of that local authority. The portability of these licences would be constrained by the existing “triple lock” contained in the Gambling Act: that is, the need to obtain local authority approval, a premises licence and planning permission.
"Gambling is now widely accepted in the UK as a legitimate entertainment activity,” said John Whittingdale, chair of the committee. “We took a lot of evidence in this inquiry, from all sides, and while we recognise the need to be aware of the harm caused by problem gambling, we believe that there is considerable scope to reduce and simplify the current burden of regulation and to devolve decision-making to a more local level. However, given how emotive an issue gambling is in many quarters, there is a worrying lack of proper research to inform policy: this is something that needs to be addressed.
“The 'reluctantly permissive' tone of gambling legislation over the last 50 years now looks outdated. It is also inadequate to cope with the realities of the global market in online gambling, and even seems ill-equipped to cope with the realities on our high streets.
“Our general approach in this report has therefore been to support liberalisation of rules and delegation of decisions to those closest to the communities that will be affected.”
