The UK industry’s demands for more B2 machines in street locations and reduced taxation may be supported by a new report which has been submitted to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
A House of Commons select committee has investigated the impact of the 2005 Gambling Act and its findings will now be evaluated by the Department.
It calls for a realignment in government thinking on gambling, which it states is now an accepted entertainment in the UK. It criticised current government attitudes towards gambling, which it states are ‘puritanical’ and ‘reluctantly permissive’.
Closer examination of the report’s detail shows that in fact it does recommend that adult gaming centres (AGCs) should have B2 machines on the same basis as betting shops as ‘they provide a controlled adult environment and have robust access controls, as demonstrated by their low failure rate in the Gambling Commission’s test-purchasing scheme.’
Up to 20 B2 machines for casinos are recommended in the report and an increase on the four currently permitted in betting shops. The AGC sector is now keen to see complete parity with betting shops.
