The deputy leader of Wigan council said there was no need for to have slot machine arcades open 24-hours, seven days a week
Calls have been made for more council responsibilities to control gambling centres (Photo by Christopher Furlong /Getty Images)
A council is asking for more powers to restrict 24-hour adult gaming centres ‘deliberately put in deprived areas’.
A meeting of Wigan full council backed a motion put forward by deputy leader, Labour’s Keith Cunliffe, to give councils more powers to block applications by allowing them to take into account ‘cumulative impact assessments’.
The venues, which are for individuals aged 18 and over, offer high-street gaming machines with jackpots up to £500. Coun Cunliffe told the meeting that since 2007 there had been an ‘aim to permit’ in planning and licensing legislation which meant a presumption that gambling establishments such as betting shops and slot machine places should be approved.
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He said: “Previously the applicant would have to show a lack of such places in the area and a demand for it. There’s been a huge increase in the number of these applications. There is no need for anywhere in this borough to have a slot machine arcade open 24-hours, seven days a week, particularly in our most deprived areas.”
Coun Cunliffe said many of the companies heading this expansion were from overseas and ‘owned by billionaires’. He said: “More than 50 per cent of these applications for adult gaming centres are in the most deprived areas in the country. It’s people in more deprived areas trying to improve their income, to win money.
“There a real issues in terms of gambling harm. It’s estimated that one-in 15 in Greater Manchester is suffering from gambling harm because it’s not just the person gambling it’s the family and children.
“Research says that people in deprived areas are more than twice as likely to become addicted to gambling. What we need is to give local authorities much more control over these facilities.
“These places are being deliberately put in those areas. This is huge amounts of money coming out of our area, from low paid people. It’s robbing the poor to pay the overseas rich.”
As per the approved motion, which was supported by all members, the council will now write to the Prime Minister requesting him, as a matter of urgency to abolish the ‘outdated aim to permit policy’.
The authority will also ask for councils to be given more powers to block applications by allowing them to take into account ‘cumulative impact assessments and requiring applicants to clearly demonstrate and show that they were serving a demand that was not being met.
