Cast your mind back to a time before the implementation of the Gambling Act in 2007, when councils and licensing authorities had the power to review and refuse new betting shop applications. This was achieved either under planning consent or by using the licensing “demand test” – which rightly inhibited any explosion of gambling venues on the high street.
As Labour’s preparations for the relaxation of the regulatory burden on betting shops was under way, the bookmakers were accelerating the roll out of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) which had been
illegally introducedfour years earlier. This is the moment in time for which Deputy Labour Leader Harriet Harman has apologetically stated: “
If we had known then what we know now, we wouldn't have allowed this, because it's not just ruining the high street, it's ruining people's lives.”
Those words were echoing across
Northern Irelandlast week as the Campaign revealed the first ever estimates of
FOBT gamblingfor the region. The situation in Northern Ireland is like taking a step back in time when it comes to gambling legislation. The last time gambling legislation was over hauled, at least moderately, was in 1985. So today, betting shops are still required to apply for planning consent, the demand test is still applied and FOBTs are illegal! That is why Northern Ireland does not have clusters of betting shops dominating high streets, just how it used to be in England, Scotland and Wales over ten years ago.
The executive at Stormont may have so far staved off the predatory strategy of relocating and opening betting shops in areas of deprivation, town centres and high streets that corporate operators have carried out here, but they haven’t prevented the bookmakers rolling out FOBTs. William Hill, Paddy Power and Ladbrokes, on the FOBT trail, have since 2005 been acquiring betting shops over there and the Campaign now estimates that there are over 900 FOBTs operating across the province.
Northern Ireland also feels like a step back in time because 60% of betting shops are still owned by independent bookmakers, whilst the corporate piranhas have so far managed to swallow a 40% share. Compare this to the betting shop make up in 2015 for the rest of the UK (where five corporate operators now own 92% of all shops) and it is those five who have led the predatory charge on our town centres.
Instead of acquiring betting shops they have used Labour’s legislation to maximum benefit, often opening multiple new shops on the same high street. Because it is so difficult even to relocate betting shops in Northern Ireland, the big operators here will have to pay big money to buy up the independents there. Ladbrokes’
2008 acquisitionof one Northern Irish independent betting chain set them back nearly £2.2 million per shop.
The most important point, an apposite one to Scotland and Councils across England and Wales, is that NI has power over gambling and FOBT stakes. Political opponents - Scottish Labour and the
SNP- are now united in confirming that they will use the powers proposed in the Smith Commission to implement a zero cap on any more FOBTs and are looking to call for more significant powers. Meanwhile in England, 93 Councils are demanding the ultimate retrospective power of stake reduction to £2 per spin. NI can do both, and possibly more when you consider that their southern neighbours announced
a banon the introduction of FOBTs in 2013.
For the bookmakers, their FOBTs and their increasingly toxic brand association, it must now feel like the world is against them. Councils, political parties, regional executives and other gambling sectors are all now lining up in condemnation. We will have to wait and see what the only devolved executive with the power to act on FOBT stakes decides, but the backdrop to that decision is that
problem gambling rates in NI are four times those of the UKand NI ranks 5th (after even Australia) on the international measure referenced in the 2010 British Gambling Prevalence Survey.
The Campaign has met with the Northern Irish minister for Social Welfare and other members of the Stormont Assembly. There is a clear determination to push through a long standing review and overhaul of gambling regulation, but a strong awareness that in years to come they do not want look back in time and echo Harriet Harman.