Gambling Industry Distraught As UK Prime Minister Attacks Retail Sector

The UK gambling industry has reacted with dismay to a verbal attack by new Prime Minister (PM) Andy Burnham, along with his promise to allow local authorities to close potentially thousands of betting shops.

Burnham, who replaced outgoing premier Kier Starmer last month, took to LinkedIn on Monday to single out betting shops as a blight on the nation’s towns and cities.

“Vape shops. Betting shops. Dodgy businesses,” he said.

“I’m doing something about it. We’re giving local people and councils more control over what opens, and tougher powers to crack down on businesses that aren’t good for our communities.”

The Prime Minister’s comments will mark an end to the “aim to permit” principle on British high streets, which currently sees local councils only given limited powers to prevent gambling businesses from filling vacant lots.

There are believed to be around 6,000 betting shops in the UK, although several major operators have already announced plans to close stores as they grapple with the effects of recent tax increases.

Burnham’s plan would also likely affect approximately 1,500 slot halls, known officially as Adult Gaming Centres (AGCs), currently operating in Britain.

Another blow

Linking betting shops to crime and damage to the local community has prompted a sharp response from the UK gambling industry.

“It is wrong to lump highly regulated, licensed betting shops together with rogue or criminal businesses,” said a statement from the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC).

Around 3,000 shops have shut since 2019, the trade group said. Around 200 AGCs have closed over the past decade, according to figures from the Gambling Commission.

Of that figure, the BGC says that 450 betting shops alone have shut since new tax rates came into effect in April.

The tax increases only affect online gambling, but major omnichannel operators have said they are being forced to close shops in order to offset a hit to their bottom line.

The government has rejected any responsibility for shops shutting down. A spokesperson said: “‘It is wrong to suggest it is the fault of government for these closures. Gambling duty rates for high street shops have not changed.”

Recent closures represent the loss of 15,000 jobs, the BGC added.

“Betting shops are an integral part of Britain’s high streets. The real threat is more empty units and fewer local jobs. Heaping further pressure on these highly regulated businesses will only result in even more closures, more job losses, less investment and less money for sport,” said BGC chief executive, Grainne Hurst.

“These are the real-world consequences of the previous Chancellor’s damaging tax rises. They are bad for jobs, bad for high streets and bad for sport - and they hand a huge advantage to the unsafe, unregulated gambling black market,” she said.

Industry in shock

Compliance consultant and interim chair of the Gambling Commission Industry Forum, Kirsty Caldwell, balked at the comparison between betting venues and stores that are simply fronts for money laundering.

“I just can't fathom how any intelligent person can suggest that the same level of criminal and anti-social activity is taking place through gambling venues, when they're so tightly supervised by one of the strictest regulators in the world,” she said.

Ex-evoke executive Vaughan Lewis warned that removing the “aim to permit” was just the first step in a political crusade by pressure groups that are ideologically opposed to the gambling industry.

He pointed to a recent report by the Social Market Foundation, which called for local authorities to be given more powers to remove betting shops and AGCs.

The same group also wants taxes on slots, known as machine games duty in the UK, to be double the current rate to 40% of revenue.

“Win the licensing argument, move to the tax argument. That is the ratchet, running on schedule,” said Lewis.

A victory for some

The campaign to close down betting shops across the UK has been spearheaded by Dawn Butler, a member of parliament based in London who is a member of the same Labour Party as Prime Minister Burnham

She penned an editorial in the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday celebrating the PM’s announcement.

Butler argues that local people are behind her plan and that gambling venues are “profiting from harm”.

“People are fed up with seeing so much gambling where they live,” she said and called on residents to petition their local councils to shut down AGCs and betting shops by revoking their licences.

Change at the top

Burnham’s pledge to gut betting shops from UK high streets came during a prolonged vacuum of power at the DCMS, the government department that oversees gambling.

The new Prime Minister had yet to name a minister in the department with oversight of the industry after he reshuffled his cabinet upon his arrival in Downing Street.

That changed on Tuesday, when Vicky Foxcroft was assigned the brief.

Welcoming her to the new role, the BGC’s Hurst issued a pointed plea to Foxcroft.

“Following the extensive changes introduced through the Gambling White Paper, it is vital that future policy is evidence-led, proportionate and fully considers the cumulative impact of regulation and recent tax increases on jobs, investment and the competitiveness of the regulated sector,” she said.