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24 Review of Gambling Statement of Principles PDF 84 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The
Committee received a report from the Environmental Health Manager, advising that Cambridge City Council, as the Licensing Authority, is required to
discharge its responsibilities under the Gambling Act 2005 with a view to promoting
the three licensing objectives, namely;
i. Preventing Gambling from being a source of
crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to
support crime;
ii. Ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair
and open way; and
iii. Protecting children and other vulnerable
persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
The
Gambling Act 2005 was designed to be a light touch piece of legislation covering a number of “licensable activities”. Such
activities are defined within the
Act.
All councils are required to re-write their policies and have them in place for
January 2016.
The Committee asked the following questions in
response to the report:
i.
Expressed surprise at the low response rates to the
consultation and questioned how much weight should be given to
a single consultees comments.
ii.
Suggested that a No Casino’s policy would be
welcomed.
iii.
Questioned how many premises in Cambridge had
Licences for licensable gambling activities.
In response to the Committee’s questions, the Environmental Health Manager, confirmed the following:
i.
The gambling related criteria detailed on page
eleven of the report had been taken from statutory guidance. Whilst, there was
no specific criterion regarding addiction, this would be included in the mental
health criteria.
ii.
Stated that the low consultation response rate from
the extensive consultee list was to be expected as this was not an area that
caused concerns in Cambridge.
iii.
Confirmed that an on-line gambling establishment
with a Cambridge address would need a Licence.
iv.
Confirmed that Cambridge currently had: 18
Bookmakers, 2 Gaming Centres and 1 Family Entertainment Centre.
Councillor Benstead stated that a ‘No Casinos’ policy could not be made at
this Committee and would require extensive consultation. This would be a
decision for the future. He welcomed the opportunity to develop detailed Local
Area Profiles as this would provide the evidence the Committee needed to reject
unsuitable applications. The Committee currently lacked evidence regarding
young or vulnerable members of the community.
Resolved unanimously to recommend to Council to:
i. To endorse the post-consultation draft
Statement of Gambling Principles shown in Appendix A and recommend to full
Council that the policy is approved for publication on 21 December 2015 for it
to come in to effect on 18 January 2016.