Wandsworth has lost 30 betting shops and eight adult gaming centres in under two decades, but a 20-year-old law means the council is still legally required to lean towards approving a new 24-hour gambling centre on Putney High Street.
Council figures show 27 betting shops remain in the borough, down from 57 in 2007, and just three adult gaming centres, down from 11. The gambling industry is in retreat across Wandsworth. The Gambling Act 2005 hasn’t caught up.
The numbers land as Luxury Leisure seeks a Putney gambling licence for a 24-hour adult gaming centre at 160-162 Putney High Street, the same site where 624 residents objected to planning permission and lost on the chair’s casting vote.
Putney MP Fleur Anderson has confirmed she is formally objecting. The Putney Society is also formally opposing. But under the Gambling Act 2005, the legal framework works against them.
Section 153 of the Act places a duty on councils to “aim to permit” gambling. Wandsworth’s own website confirms it is “required to permit the use of premises for gambling” provided the application meets three licensing objectives covering crime, fair gambling, and protecting children and vulnerable people.
Everything else is excluded. The council states that representations “cannot be on moral grounds or on the grounds of demand or need.” In practice, this means residents cannot object because they don’t want a gambling centre, because there are already enough, or because 624 of their neighbours already said no.
A pattern repeated across England
Putney is not alone in discovering how little community opposition counts.
In Ipswich, more than 150 residents objected to a 24-hour Admiral Slots licence. It was approved. In Whitby, more than 500 people opposed an Admiral venue. The council refused, but Admiral won on appeal. “Whitby will become the Las Vegas of the East Coast,” said Councillor Derek Bastiman of Scarborough Council.
In Enfield, eight gambling venues cluster within half a mile of each other in one of the borough’s most deprived areas. MP Feryal Clark told Parliament the current law was “indefensible.” Prof Heather Wardle, giving evidence to the Commons Health Committee, described “systemic power imbalances between local authorities and the gambling industry.”
The frustration has produced a growing reform campaign. In April 2025, 36 councils and two mayors wrote to the government demanding reform of the Gambling Act, calling the law “desperately out of date” and arguing that councils are “effectively powerless to intervene.” Wandsworth was not among them.
In January 2026, Brent East MP Dawn Butler coordinated a letter to the prime minister with 280 cross-party signatories backing her Ten Minute Rule Bill to end the rule. A Commons debate on 8 January saw MP after MP describe communities powerless against the industry.
The government has responded cautiously. Starmer told Butler at PMQs that councils should be “given additional tools and powers to ensure vibrant high streets.” Minister Ian Murray confirmed plans for cumulative impact assessments “as soon as a legislative vehicle is available.” No legislation has been introduced and no timetable set.
Last July, Wandsworth approved a Cumulative Impact Policy for Putney High Street that makes it harder to open new late-night food and drink venues. The council can restrict a kebab shop opening after 11pm. It cannot refuse a 24-hour gambling centre.
Where Putney’s MP stands
Anderson described the proposal as a “24-hour Adult Gaming Centre” in her February newsletter, saying she believes it would “harm the character and vitality of our High Street, particularly at a key gateway near the station and next to the local library.”
Butler’s letter to Starmer was sent on 5 January. The Commons debate took place on 8 January. Anderson does not appear among the signatories and did not speak in the debate, despite representing the constituency where 624 residents had already objected to this very premises. Her formal objection came in her February newsletter, after the national campaign had been running for months.
Her stated grounds also illustrate the structural problem. Objecting because a venue would “harm the character and vitality” of the High Street is precisely the kind of representation the Gambling Act excludes. Character, vitality and community preference are all irrelevant under the law.
How to object before 12 February
Residents should still make representations. If enough relevant objections are received, the application goes to a public Licensing Committee hearing rather than being decided by officers. Full details on how to object are in our earlier coverage of this application.
The deadline, according to the notice at the premises, is 12 February 2026.
Thamesfield ward councillors can be asked what representations the council is making and whether Wandsworth will join the 39 councils calling for reform: Cllr Ethan Brooks, Cllr James Jeffreys, and Cllr John Locker (all Conservative).
Residents can also write to Fleur Anderson MP asking her to back Butler’s campaign to remove “aim to permit” from the Gambling Act. Until that changes, a borough where gambling venues have more than halved will still be legally required to approve new ones.
