Petition
Slots venues are blighting our towns and cities, devastating families across the UK. Councils must be given more powers to reject them.
Why is this important?
Jackie’s mum, Wendy, was preyed on by a 24-hour slots venue in the town where I live, Stockport, when she was undergoing cancer treatment. Wendy spent hours each day gambling on the machines, losing many thousands of pounds – everything she had, as well as loans – her only break to go to the ATM. The staff never intervened to stop her.
Jackie’s mum’s story is not unique with hundreds of these slot venues springing up on high streets across the country, devastating families in almost every town and city. Despite containing the most addictive and harmful form of gambling – where you can spin a £2 bet every 2.5 seconds – councils are nearly powerless to refuse their licenses because current laws say that they should “aim to permit” gambling.
They are open 24 hours a day – including Christmas day – so people are often drawn in when everything else is closed. People lose their wages, benefits, or pension for the whole week in minutes, leading to poverty, crime, mental health struggles, relationship breakdowns, and suicides.
The money does not go back to the community but to international firms profiting from misery.
We need to stop these predatory places opening and stop the existing ones being 24hrs. The government must give councils more powers to reject them and we now have a chance to make it happen.
In December Angela Rayner presented to parliament the English Devolution white paper which says it will “look to complement local authorities’ existing powers in relation to gambling outlets to refuse or place conditions on premises licences”.
I’m calling on the government to bring this into law and stop these venues killing our high streets and our communities.