A report seeking authorisation of a revised Statement of Gambling Licensing Principles to be in effect from 31 January 2022 until 31 January 2025.

The Executive Director for Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report asking the Committee to approve the revised Statement of Gambling Licensing Principles.  The following documents were appended to the report:

Appendix RS-1 – Statement of Gambling Licensing Principles;

Appendix RS-2 – List of Consultees;

Appendix RS-3 – Summary of Consultation Responses;

Appendix RS-4 – Climate Impact Assessment.

The report explained that the policy should be reviewed on a three-yearly basis and that the current Policy ran from 31 January 2019 to 31 January 2022.  A consultation on the Policy had been carried out between 14 December 2021 and 11 January 2022, including various bodies within the gambling industry, groups that dealt with the effects of gambling and the responsible authorities stated in the Gambling Act 2005.

The report also explained that following the consultation, there were only minor changes to the policy, which included:

·       Updating to add some details of additional processes for clarity;

·       Authorising officers to cancel club gaming and club machine permits where no annual fee had been received;

·       Updating the map of Reading and the Local Area Profile Map;

·       Updating statistics and contact details;

·       Removal of section 11.2 due to the stakes for Fixed Odds Betting Terminals having been reduced to £2 instead of £100 (as of 1 April 2019).  There had been no reports of these machines being anymore detrimental than other category B machines since the reduction in stakes and therefore they did not warrant specific mention in the Policy.

Robert Smalley confirmed that the title of Section 14 of the Statement of Gambling Licensing Principles should be amended to “Brighter Futures for Children”.

Resolved –

That the revised Statement of Gambling Licensing Principles, including the change of the title of Section 14 to “Brighter Futures for Children”, be approved for implementation from 31 January 2022.