Licensed gambling in Islington
Our ability to regulate gambling activities in the borough supports our overall aim of creating a fairer Islington where residents have an opportunity to have more influence on the determination of licence applications.
This means residents who are, or who could be, affected by premises providing gambling are able to influence decisions that affect them.
We also work with others to protect children and vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling activities.
Definition of gambling
Gambling is defined as gaming, betting or taking part in a lottery:
- gaming means playing a game for the chance to win a prize
- a lottery is where participants are involved in an arrangement where prizes are allocated wholly by a process of chance
- betting is making or accepting a bet on the outcome of a race, competition or other event, the likelihood of anything occurring or not occurring, whether something is true or not.
Shared responsibility for gambling
The responsibility for regulating gambling in the borough is shared between the Gambling Commission and Islington Council.
The Gambling Commission is responsible for issuing operating licences and personal licences, and regulating remote gambling activities such as facilities provided via the Internet, television or radio.
We have responsibility for issuing licences and permits to allow premises to be used for gambling and registering small society lotteries, and issuing occasional and temporary use notices.
Statement of gambling policy
You can download the new Gambling Policy 2023-2025, effective as of 20 January 2023, from the Useful Documents section. You can also find the current policy for 2018-2022.
Licensing objectives
The Gambling Act 2005 sets out three licensing objectives that are fundamental to decision making.
These are:
- preventing gambling from being a source of crime and disorder, being associated with crime or disorder, or being used to support crime
- ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way
- protecting children and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling
- we must aim to permit the use of premises for gambling in so far as the authority think fit reasonably consistent with the licensing objectives.
