Bacta, the trade body for Britain’s amusement arcades and adult gaming centres (AGCs), has rejected Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s description of parts of the land-based gambling sector as “dodgy”, calling it “an extraordinary way to characterise legitimate businesses” that hold licences and answer to both the regulator and local authorities.
The response came in a statement from Allaster Gair, Bacta’s director of communications, who said the language signals what he called a dangerous idea taking hold in British politics: that a lawfully licensed industry can be treated as illegitimate by government because ministers dislike it.
Taxation and regulation should not become instruments of moral judgement.
Burnham took office on 20 July 2026 and has since criticised the concentration of gambling premises on high streets in deprived areas. His government has set out plans that would change how those premises are licensed and how much tax they pay.
Removing “aim to permit”
The central proposal is the removal of the “aim to permit” principle from the Gambling Act 2005. As drafted, the principle requires licensing authorities to grant a premises licence where an applicant meets the licensing objectives, leaving councils limited grounds for refusal. Stripping it out would apply to betting shops, bingo halls and AGCs, and would give local authorities wider discretion to turn down new applications.
Gair argued that the change matters beyond gambling, since it removes the presumption that a business meeting the legal standard is allowed to trade.
That principle should concern every business sector, not just gambling.
Campaigners want the consultation to go further. James Noyes, a senior fellow at the Social Market Foundation (SMF), has pushed for councils to be given power to revoke existing premises licences, not only to refuse new ones. Revocation is currently reserved for cases involving specific wrongdoing.
Bacta president Joseph Cullis, whose family has run AGCs in North Ayrshire since the 1960s, said the trade body would seriously consider a judicial review if revocation powers were introduced without a finding of wrongdoing.
You can’t take businesses from people that have been in an industry for decades.
Machine Games Duty and business rates
The second front is fiscal. Chancellor John Healey is reported to be weighing an increase in Machine Games Duty (MGD) at the Autumn Budget, and the government has indicated that business rate relief for gaming venues could be reduced.
MGD is currently charged at rates between 5% and 25% of net takings depending on the stake and machine category. The SMF has proposed raising the rate on Category B slot machines to 40%.
Bacta ran a pulse survey of its members between 7 and 14 August. Of those who responded, 96% said they were less optimistic about their business than before the July 2024 general election, and 96% described themselves as extremely concerned about a duty increase, with the remaining 4% somewhat concerned. Asked what an increase would force them to do, 31% pointed to venue closures, 23% to reduced investment, 15% to staffing cuts, and 8% each to price rises and lower profitability.
Chris Haley, group chairman of Dransfields, said the arithmetic does not work for smaller sites.
Many operate on wafer thin margins with low or no cash reserves. There’s a real danger that some clubs will not be able to afford the rise and simply close.
Haley added that forced closures could cut the tax take rather than raise it.
The disputed premise
Bacta’s core objection is factual. Ministers have framed AGCs as a sector expanding across high streets, and Bacta says the licensing data shows the opposite. According to Gambling Commission figures, the number of adult gaming centres has fallen by around 12% since 2015, in line with a broader contraction across Britain’s land-based gambling estate.
Policy cannot be credible when the premise on which it is based is demonstrably wrong.
Gair said operators have tightened player protections and work under licence conditions, local authority oversight and social responsibility obligations, which he said are not the actions of a “dodgy” industry. The regulator itself is under new leadership, having named Ruth Evans as chair of the Gambling Commission.
What the sector faces next
Two dates now decide the outcome. The consultation on the Gambling Act changes will show whether revocation powers are on the table, which is the trigger Bacta has named for legal action. The Autumn Budget will show whether MGD rises, and by how much.
The politics are shifting alongside the policy. In the same Bacta survey, 4% of members said they would vote Labour in a snap election, against 44% for Reform UK and 40% for the Conservatives. A sector that has spent two decades arguing its case through the licensing system is now preparing to argue it in court and at the ballot box.
Source: Bacta
