County to review gambling policy

CARMARTHENSHIRE is the third largest county in Wales which has a range of market towns that provide trade and service to the public in the area including Llanelli. In Carmarthenshire there are 26 gambling premises which include 3 family entertainment premises, 15 betting premises, 3 bingo premises, 4 adult gaming premises, and 1 track betting premises.
At least once every three years Carmarthenshire County Council are legally required to review the Gambling Policy in place under the Gambling Act 2005 to ensure that its procedures are still suitable for purpose.
The public’s input on the extent of gambling-related problems is sought by the Council therefore the public have to be consulted as part of this review. The policy has to be responsive to the needs of locals, and advisory comments from individuals as well as evidence will both help evaluate the progress the policy makes against its required objectives.
In order for this to take place, the Council held a ten week consultation period between July and September of this year to receive opinions from a range of individuals and organisations who are interested in licensing matters. This consultation period was the first opportunity since 2012 to formally comment on the policy and was open to comments from local residents, businesses, and existing license holders and their representatives. Some of the consultees included the local residents, local gambling businesses, Dyfed-Powys Police, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, the Gambling Commission, Planning department at Carmarthenshire County Council, Environmental Health, Child Protection, and HM revenue and customs.
The consultation was specifically focused on identifying if gambling-related problems were perceived by the local public as a serious problem, and if so attempting to identify the locations where gambling problems take place. Both offline and online surveys were used to gather responses which contained fixed-response and free-response questions and a report was made by the council to display the gathered results from the public consultation.
Firstly in the results, the statement ‘there are gambling-related problems in my area’ had a response which showed 44% of people disagreed with it, 19% agreed and 37% feeling they did not agree nor disagree. The last response may suggest members of the public do not have sufficient local knowledge of the issue and wish to remain neutral. Optimistically the majority of responses from the public did not consider gambling a problem in the area.
The next statement in the report received 45% disagreeing with it; ‘access to gambling by children and young people is a problem in my area’ with only 2% agreeing and 52% stating neither. This statement received a warm positive response, one that shows that children and young adults in our community do not have access to gambling.
Lastly, the statement ‘I am concerned about the number of gambling premises in any particular area of the County’ saw 24% of the public disagreeing, 17% agreeing, and 59% neither. The report evidences that members of the public are aware of gambling in their county but do not overly feel that it is a problem that needs managing.
In the report there was also analysis of whether there were problems as a result of a gambling premise being too close to buildings which house children and young adults, such as schools, sixth form colleges, and children’s play areas. The analysis of data displayed 98% of respondents were unaware of any problems regarding this issue and 93% of respondents stated they were unaware of any premises which have caused problems as a result of gambling machines.
While the report overall was a positive one on the county, it also received negative comments from the public stating their opinion on gambling issues in the area. Some of the concerns by the public were that there was an increase of betting shops in the town centre which featured heavy advertising focusing on winning on their premises.
The suggestions made by respondents included: “Betting shop window advertisements encourages betting, they should be forced to also say how often people win.” With the number of betting shops raising in Llanelli, it is a concern that with the current lack of trade and even dwindling atmosphere in the town centre, the public are often drawn in by these advertisements as a way of entertainment; to ‘pass the time’ in the town with other respondents agreeing: “Increase in number of betting shops in Llanelli is a concern, should limit the number of betting shops in socially deprived areas of the town.”
Another respondent made it clear that the Council should be reviewing issues like this to protect the vulnerable from gambling businesses who may exploit its customers: “Councillors should spend time reviewing this issue. Their job is to protect the vulnerable and they should send a clear message to gambling businesses that exploitation will not be tolerated.”
The Council’s final changes to the policy included updated details of responsible authorities, updated advice inserted on the protection of children ad vulnerable persons from gambling harm, and a scheme of delegation amended to give elected members a greater role in determining gaming machine permit applications.