MP's Stand on Betting Shops is Too Late

Written by David Schmitz and published in Tottenham, Wood Green and Edmonton Journal on Wed 3rd Feb 2010

David Lammy's belated campaign against more betting shops should not conceal the fact that he could, and should, have intervened much earlier.

Haringey Council has not been able to stop the spread of these establishments because the Government, through the Gambling Act 2005, severely restricted local authorities' ability to do so.

The only grounds for refusal of a premises licence are (1) a danger to children and other vulnerable persons or (2) a danger of crime or disorder, by which is meant something more than "mere" nuisance to the public.

Local authorities, also, are expressly forbidden from taking the expected demand by local people for such premises into account.

When this Act was implemented in 2006, David Lammy was a minister in the department which implemented it, yet he does not seem to have done anything to stop it from coming into effect.

In February 2009, he said at a public meeting that the Act had had unforeseen consequences, but nothing has since been done since to change the legislation.

This should have been straightforward (indeed, I myself published draft clauses for the necessary Bill). Now, he has probably left it too late.

This campaign resembles his recent "campaign" to protect hospital casualty units from his own government's closure plans. It is electioneering theatre, and does not deserve to be taken seriously.