Are local gambling impact assessments another concern?


Yes, because the question is how objective those assessments will ultimately be. I can understand the frustration of a local authority that sees several gambling premises clustered together on the same high street. Betting shops used to cluster too, but we largely don't anymore because the customer demand simply isn't there to support it.


Te danger is that councils look at betting shops, adult gaming centres and other gambling premises collectively rather than considering the very different businesses operating behind those licences. If an impact assessment starts from the premise that another gambling venue is inherently undesirable, it creates another barrier to opening a betting shop regardless of the individual circumstances of that location.


Tere is another side to this too. If opening new shops becomes significantly harder, existing licensed estates potentially become more


Tose factors have contributed to empty units and declining high streets. It seems unreasonable to create an environment in which premises remain vacant and then blame the businesses prepared to invest in filling them. Betting shops did not create the structural problems facing the British high street.


What does the retail betting sector look like five years from now?


If you leave it purely to economic forces, I don’t believe this is an industry in terminal decline. We face significant cost pressures, as every business does, and we have to manage them. Racing costs are probably my biggest economic concern, but customers are still coming through the doors and revenues are holding up, if not improving. Te fact that average GGY per shop has risen by around 16 per cent since 2018/19 reinforces that point. From a purely commercial perspective, I wouldn’t describe the outlook as spectacular, but I would certainly be reasonably positive.


Te danger is that councils look at betting shops, adult gaming centres and other gambling premises collectively rather than considering the very different businesses operating behind


those licences. If an impact assessment starts from the premise that another gambling venue is inherently undesirable, it


creates another barrier to opening a betting shop regardless of the individual circumstances of that location.


valuable. Anyone wanting to enter or expand within the retail betting market may increasingly have to acquire an existing operator rather than grow organically. So, the changes could restrict future expansion while simultaneously increasing the strategic value of the shops and licences already in the market.


Are betting shops being unfairly blamed for the high street decline?


I think they are being used as a convenient part of a much broader narrative. We’re opening a shop in Hemel Hempstead in a unit that had been empty for two years. Tere wasn’t a butcher, baker or independent retailer waiting to take it. It was simply vacant.


For decades, high-street retailers have warned successive governments about the impact of the business rates system and competition from online retail. Alongside that, you have the growth of out-of-town retail, parking costs and underinvestment in town centres.


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GREG KNIGHT CEO, Jenningsbet


Te greater concern is political because that is something individual operators have very little control over. You can invest in your estate, find the right locations and employ and train the right people, but those efforts can be undermined very quickly by policy decisions.


At the same time, the industry has to recognise why gambling generates strong opinions. Tere are people whose lives have been harmed by gambling. Tere needs to be balance, effective regulation and appropriate safeguards.


We also need to recognise that the industry can operate within an echo chamber. On platforms such as LinkedIn, we often speak to people who broadly agree with us, while those with completely different views may never hear our argument. Bridging that gap is important.


Te retail betting industry has a case to make, but we need to make sure we are communicating it beyond our own audience.


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