Consultation process for Statement of Gambling Licensing Principles

The Gambling Act 2005 requires that the Council review its Gambling Policy every three years. The current policy period ends on 31/01/2022. As part of this process, we must consult with:

• Thames Valley Police
• One or more persons who appear to the authority to represent the interests of persons carrying on gambling businesses in the authority’s area
• One or more persons who appear to the authority to represent the interests of persons who are likely to be affected by the exercise of the authority’s functions under the Act.

Current Policy

Proposed Policy

Summary of Changes:

1. Updated to add some details of additional processes for clarity and made one change so that officers can cancel club gaming and club machine permits where no annual fee has been received.
2. Included new map of Reading (Appendix A)
3. Updated Local Area Profile Map (Appendix D)
4. Removed some contact telephone numbers from section 36 that are no longer in use.
5. Updated population and BaME ethnicity figures in section 1.6
6. Removed section 11.2 due to the stakes for FOBT’s now being £2 instead of £100 (as of 01^st April 2019). There have been no reports of these machines being anymore detrimental than other category B machines since the reduction in stakes and therefore do not warrant specific mention in the policy.

The consultation will run for 4 weeks from 14/12/2021 to 11/01/2022.
If you would like to make comment on the proposed policy, please e-mail licensing@reading.gov.uk within the consultation period.