Gambling licensing

The Gambling Act 2005 came into force on 1 September 2007. The Act repealed the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963, the Gaming Act 1968 and the Lotteries and Amusement Act 1976.

The Gambling Act 2005

The Act covers 2 main activities:

Providing facilities for gambling
Using premises for gambling

The Act contains 3 licensing objectives that underpin the legislation:

Preventing gambling from being a source of crime and disorder, being associated with crime or disorder, or being used to support a crime
Ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way
Protecting children and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling

What does The Act do?

The Act transfers responsibility for granting gaming and betting permissions from licensing Justices and grants new powers to licensing authorities in relation to the licensing and regulation of the use of gambling premises.

The Act requires the Council to publish a Statement of Gambling Principles and it is this Statement of Principles that will determine all applications given to the Licensing Authority to process. The Statement of Principles came into effect on 31 January 2007.

More details

The relevant documents, including application forms, for premises licenced under the Gambling Act 2005 can be found on our gambling premises applications page.

Further information can be obtained from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport - DCMS - website.