Licensed Gambling in Islington

The ability of the council to regulate gambling activities in the borough supports the One Islington vision in providing an opportunity for the council and its partners to have a more direct influence on the determination of licence applications.

Residents who are, or who could be, affected by premises providing gambling now have more an opportunity to influence decisions that affect them. The council also works with others to protect children and vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling activities.

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 means:

• 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

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 to organisations and individuals that provide facilities for gambling and personal licences to persons working in the gambling industry.

The Commission takes the lead role for ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way through the administration and enforcement of operating and personal licence requirements. The Commission is also responsible for remote gambling activities such as facilities provided via the Internet, television or radio.

Islington Council has responsibility for issuing licences and permits to allow premises to be used for gambling. The types of premises needing authorisation from the council includes:

• casinos
• bingo halls
• betting shops
• amusement arcades
• pubs
• clubs with fruit machines

Gambling Policy

The council's Gambling Policy sets out how it intends to exercise its functions as the Licensing Authority for gambling over the next three years. The policy can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.

To view the Notice of Publication of Gambling Policy, please download the relevant document from the bottom of this page. To view the responses gathered from the public consultation on Islington's Gambling Policy, which occured between September and October 2006, please download the relevant document from the bottom of this page.

Applying for a Licence

If you would like to apply for a gambling licence, follow the link on the right to 'Gambling Act application forms'. This link will take you to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport website.

Contact details

Licensing Service
Public Protection Division
Islington Council
222 Upper Street
London N1 1XR

Tel: 020 7527 3031
Fax: 020 7527 3430
Email: licensing@islington.gov.uk  

Gambling Commission
Victoria Square House
Victoria Square
Birmingham B2 4BP

Tel: 0121 230 6666
Fax: 0121 230 6720
Email: info@gamblingcommission.gov.uk