Agenda item

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submits a report on the review of the Gambling Act Policy which is required to be published no later than 3 January 2016 (4 weeks before the new policy takes effect).  The new policy will be in force for three years from 2016 to 2019.

Consultation responses will be analysed prior to Council being asked to adopt the Policy in November 2105.

The Committee is asked to provide comments on the proposed policy to assist Council when it considers the proposed policy.

The Director of Local Services and Enforcement submitted a report on the review of the Gambling Act Policy which was required to be published no later than 3 January 2016 (4 weeks before the new policy takes effect).  The new policy would be in force for three years from 2016 to 2019.

Consultation responses were currently being analysed and would be submitted to Council when it was asked to adopt the Policy in November 2105.

The Committee was asked to provide comments on the proposed policy to assist Council when it considered the proposed policy.

The Licensing Team Manager stated that the current Policy would expire in February 2016. The consultation period had now ended and 6 responses had been received; 2 from licence holders, 3 from residents and I from a business. 

The Head of Licensing and Pollution Control stated that the Gambling Commission had suggested that local authorities should develop a Local Area Profile to draw data about risk from a number of bodies, including responsible authorities under the Gambling Act 2005 to assist applicants in submitting any applications.  The compilation of the Profile is not compulsory but authorities that don’t produce a Profile are encouraged to include what they would expect local operators to include in the premises risk assessments that they were required to produce.  It was suggested that a Local Area Profile be produced for Leicester which would then be available on the Council’s website for existing and new applicants to determine what steps they needed to take to mitigate risk and promote the licensing objectives.

Members commented that they would like to receive the responses to the consultation in order to better inform any comments and observations they may wish to make on the Policy. They felt this would give better feedback to officers on the Policy. They also commented that they would have liked to have seen the consultation document included with the report.

Following questions from Members, it was stated that:-

a)         The three licensing objectives would not allow licensing authorities to take any action over incidents of racial abuse by customers in a gambling establishment.  However, operators of gambling establishment would have their own equal opportunities statements for staff and customers.  Anyone subjected to racial abuse would have legal recourse to action outside of the licensing regime.

b)         The Government had recently rejected requests arising from the London Borough of Newham’s campaign to reduce the maximum bet per spin on fixed odds betting terminals in high street betting shops from £100 to £2.  The Government were, however, intending to give local authorities additional planning powers to assist local authorities in preventing betting premises being located in inappropriate locations.  Details of the proposals were not fully developed but it was felt that the creation of local area profiles would allow local authorities to control betting premises in a similar way to the use of Cumulative Impact Zones for premises selling alcohol.  It may be possible to indicate that location near places of religious worship or schools would be inappropriate or that certain area had a cumulative effect.  A report would be submitted to a future Committee meeting with proposals when clear details of the powers and options available to local authorities were known.

            Members also made the following general observations:-

a)         Operators should be encouraged to display signs promoting responsible gambling and to provide help for people who had a gambling addiction.

b)         There were concerns about on-line betting and bingo sites, which were acknowledged as being outside of the Policy, but which nevertheless exposed vulnerable people to harm exploitation and could lead to issues of poverty.

The Head of Licensing and Pollution Control stated that in relation to Members comments about the seeing the responses to the consultation, the intention in submitting the report had been to consult the Committee as part of the consultation process. The responses to the consultation would be circulated to Members.

RESOLVED:

That the responses to the consultation be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee to enable Members to give comments on the Draft Statement of Gambling Policy, prior to it being submitted to the Council Meeting in November for adoption.