Poll: Councils to get new powers over bookies

Leaders of local authorities have welcomed the prospect of new rights to refuse planning applications for bookies.

But Shropshire Council leader Keith Barrow said it was not the shops themselves that were the problem – but the Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) installed inside many.

Dubbed the "crack cocaine" of gambling, they have attracted severe criticism over the amounts of money people can lose within minutes.

At the moment players can stake £100 every 20 seconds on the machines. Councillor Barrow welcomed the new powers, but said: "The problem is not bookmakers per se, it is these machines. They have the potential to be destructive to people's lives.

"We would not want to ban bookmakers from the High Street, far from it, but I certainly think the Government would do well to look at doing something about these machines.

"For me, they seem to be the problem.

"We would welcome any extra powers handed down to us through our licensing department."

The Government has said it wants communities to have a 'proper voice on the issue so that their views are taken into account when plans for a new betting shop are submitted'.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it was reacting to concerns about betting shops 'clustering'.

Critics call FOBTs the 'crack cocaine' of gambling because people can lose up to £100 a time on a 20-second spin of a wheel for games such as virtual roulette. There are 33,000 such machines across Britain.

Chancellor George Osborne recently announced that duty on the terminals would be set at 25 per cent.

They have become so popular that it is claimed they account for up to 80 per cent of the profits in some high street betting offices.

The Association of British Bookmakers says that its members have more than 3,700 jobs in the industry across the West Midlands and that bookies contribute £219 million a year to the region's economy.

Meanwhile, an appeal against a decision to refuse permission for a betting shop to open on a high street in Mid Wales has been thrown out.

William Hill wanted to open at the former Stead & Simpson shop in Broad Street, Welshpool, but Powys County Council's planning committee refused permission earlier this year.