Once more, PM Keir Starmer faces growing calls to intervene and ensure that local councils are granted direct powers on the licensing of gambling venues and betting shops.
Online betting has faced a huge amount of scrutiny in the UK over recent years, and later this year will be subject to a hefty tax hike. While the retail side of the industry has been let off easier than its web counterpart regarding taxation, it is still not out of the woods.
During the festive period, the BBC published research into UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) data showing that 664 of 1,400 Adult Gaming Centres (AGCs) spread across the UK are located in the top 20% of deprived areas.
Reformists underscore the data as ‘solid evidence’ of a long-held concern that UK gambling “overly targets vulnerable communities”. This argument has once again been brought to the forefront by MPs and local councils, who want to see the ‘Aim to Permit’ rule on local licensing of gambling venues abolished.
Dawn Butler, Labour MP for the London constituency of Brent East, has penned a letter to PM Starmer, calling for a scrapping of ‘Aim to Permit’ – a principal in place since the early 2000s which reformists believe encourages the Gambling Commission to side more with permitting local gaming licences than opposing them.
Butler, along with the 280 councillors and MPs who signed her letter, called for a long-sought intervention by the Labour government. In April last year 39 local councils, including Brent Council, called for local authorities to be given greater powers around licensing, and Butler later quizzed Starmer in the House of Commons about the matter.
BIG NEWS
Thank you to the 280 cross-party signatories backing my campaign & 10 Minute Rule Bill to end the outdated ‘Aim to Permit’ principle.
Councils & communities must have the power to say no to more gambling establishments.
People before profit!
pic.twitter.com/ZOuCUCwjPz
— Dawn Butler
(@DawnButlerBrent) January 5, 2026
Another signature is that of Will Prochaska, a veteran gambling reform advocate. The organisation he heads up, the Coalition to End Gambling Ads (CEGA), published its own report on New Years Day in which it mapped out consumer distrust of the industry regardless of political ideologies.
Titled “End the Losing Streak”, the report further warns of the British public losing its trust in the governing organisations of UK gambling including the Gambling Commission.
The MPs latest letter reads: “The current legal framework ties the hands of local authorities. Councils are forced to grant gambling licences if minimum criteria are met, regardless of the clear social harm or local opposition.
“This has left the council unable to stop more gambling shops from opening and communities powerless to stop the spread of betting shops, casinos and adult gaming centres – often clustered in areas already struggling with deprivation.”
AGCs vs betting shops
Once more under scrutiny, UK gambling underscores that concerns by MPs and local councillors require more nuance on the presence of venues on UK high streets. In which reformists have made little distinction between Adult Gaming Centres (ARCs), branded as the more problematic “24-hour slot shops” vs traditional betting shops.
“Betting shops are an integral part of Britain’s high streets, supporting local communities, generating vital tax revenues and sustaining jobs,” a spokesperson for the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), the trade association and standards body for UK betting, told SBC News.
“There are currently around 5,800 betting shops across the UK, supporting 42,000 jobs, contributing £140m a year to horse racing, paying £1bn in direct tax to the Treasury and another £60m in business rates to local councils.
“Crucially, betting shops also help sustain the wider high street. A study by ESA Retail found that 89% of betting shop customers combine their visit to the bookies with trips to other local businesses, making betting shops a vital driver of footfall and growth on hard-pressed high streets.
“Each month around 22.5 million people in Britain enjoy a bet and the overwhelming majority do so safely and responsibly. The most recent NHS Health Survey for England estimated that just 0.4% of the adult population are problem gamblers.”
Betting shops and AGCs both fit within the wider gaming industry, and specifically within the retail vertical of it, but they are at core very different products. The high-street betting shops main product is sports betting, with horse racing and football the two biggest markets.
AGCs instead function as slot centres, with customers able to play various slot games as well as games like e-roulette. Gambling Commission rules, under the Gambling Act review White Paper, mandate that 80% of machines must be Category C and/or D, while the remaining 20% can be B3 or B4 machines.
Slot machines are widely seen as having stronger association with gambling-related harm than sports betting – although it should be noted that betting shops also include some slot machines, the fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs), which were subject to a regulatory change back in 2019 when the stake limit was lowered from £200 to £2.
“Betting shops are already among the most highly regulated retail environments in the country,” the BGC said. “Since 2019 more than 2,400 betting shops have closed, underlining the real pressures already facing the sector.
“Any further restrictions risk threatening jobs on the high street and driving customers to the unregulated harmful black market, which pays no tax and offers none of the protections that exist in licensed premises.”
Betting’s regulatory battle
Concerns around where betting shops are located are nothing new. The concentration of bookies in underprivileged areas has been a political talking point for some time, as the industry cites that shops are accommodating cheap rental rates on high streets with rates set by individual councils.
The rise of AGCs and ‘24 hour slot shops’ as the centres are referred to by reform groups and media outlets like the Guardian has, however, exacerbated criticism of the sector. Butler and her fellow MPs, plus the countless councillors, are keen to see regulations change in 2026.
In her letter, Butler asserted that scrapping Aim to Permit is ‘essential if councils are to take a truly preventative approach’. The letter also asserts that the signers are ‘not about banning the occasional bet’ but instead about ‘protecting our high streets’ – though in the industry’s view, betting shops are a central part of the high street and are helping keep it alive.
“Betting shops already operate under strict national regulation, with robust age-verification and safer gambling controls in place,” the BGC told SBC prior to the publication of Butler’s letter, following the BBC report.
“Any approach must be proportionate and consistent, and avoid unfairly penalising high-street betting shops while weakening the regulated sector.”
Heading into 2026, it is clear that local governments and many MPs “have had enough of the betting industry”. While an outright ban will never be tabled – MPs and the government are acutely aware of how much tax the industry brings in as Rachel Reeves’ November budget shows – campaigners want to see the industry’s presence visibly rolled back.
April will be a decisive month for UK gambling as the new tax plan for online gambling is adopted, a measure that sees all gambling licences implement new costs controls. Yet the early days of the year show us that stakeholders have a lot more to look out for as local rights and autonomy on gambling becomes 2026’s new battleground.
Starmer has taken some of the MPs’ and councillors’ considerations on board, telling Butler at PMQs last year that ‘It is important that local authorities are given additional tools and powers to ensure vibrant high streets’. The industry’s taxation future is now set in stone, but its regulatory one is as uncertain as ever.
“Regulatory certainty is essential to protect jobs, consumers and hard-pressed high streets,” said the BGC. “Prolonged uncertainty risks undermining the regulated sector while strengthening the unregulated harmful black market.”