The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has questioned a former William Hill and Paddy Power executive about betting shops deliberately opening in more vulnerable and deprived areas.
The topic of the meeting centred around revitalising high streets, focusing not only on the aesthetic of the area but on the underlying criminality. Josh Nicholson, the committee’s Head of Programme, addressed the issue of vape shops and mini marts, but notably excluded betting shops from the conversation.
Nicholson stated: “We might not like betting shops, but they are not necessarily run by organised crime, and the organised criminal element absolutely has to be the priority.”
However, the committee questioned the abundancy of betting shops in deprived rather than affluent areas.
Nindi Dhanjal, licensing specialist with experience opening stores for William Hill, believes the reason for the disproportionate allocation of shops is based on demand.
“I think it comes down to demand. We look at footfall and what is in the available location, and at who operates there already and whether we can offer something new. If we do not offer something new, we do not invest in a location.”
When the Chair of the committee brought up data from the University of Bristol, which supports the idea that betting shops deliberately target areas with high rates of deprivation, Dhanjal explained that operators would conduct risk assessments before an opening.
“We have to risk assess that. Every new licence has to be accompanied by a local area risk assessment, which we call LARAs. We have to assess the local area profile so that we can mitigate that,” Dhanjal said.
An obvious follow-up question arose: if operators are aware of the deprivation outcomes, “how is it that there is data that shows that it is still where there is a higher proportion of these types of shops?”
To which Dhanjal gave a straightforward answer: “Again, it comes back to demand; that is where people want to gamble.”
The topic of betting shops’ location has been debated all around the world. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a citizen-led initiative resulted in the creation of an app for reporting betting shops near schools.
In July, Betfred announced plans to close 132 shops and cut more than 600 roles
