Betting shop owners have reacted with fury after a local MP accused them of “preying on vulnerable people.”
Hackney MP Diane Abbott said she planned to ask the government to give councils more power to refuse licensing applications by betting shops, which she said “drain local residents’ pockets and fuel gambling addictions.”
She added: “It is no coincidence that bookmakers are one of the few companies still reporting huge profits despite the financial crisis.”
Her statements were branded “unfounded and irresponsible” by Andrew Lyman, Senior Executive of the Association of British Bookmakers.
Mr Lyman said that Abbott was wrong to attack businesses which were providing her constituents with much-needed jobs in a “depressed” retail sector.
He said: “It makes me wince when people make statements like that based on outdated perceptions of the industry.
“Betting shops provide employment opportunities and they contribute billions in corporate and gambling taxes.”
Mr Lyman, who previously was director at the gambling association, which regulates commercial gambling in the UK, denied that the gambling industry was profiting from Hackney’s vulnerable.
Mr Lyman said: “It’s true that there are significant numbers of betting shops in the borough, but we do not target depressed areas like Hackney.”
He added that the impact on the gaming industry was likely to be delayed by 6-12 months as consumer spending patterns shifted. “We are certainly not recession-proof.”
Customers at the Ladbrokes bookmakers in Mare Street said that they agreed the council should stop interfering.
Dave Jones, 59, from Hackney Central, said: “No-one forces people to bet. The council shouldn’t get involved; it’s nothing to do with them.”
Thomas Pierre, 50, from Ridley Road, added: “It wouldn’t be fair to shut the bookies down now. They provide a lot of jobs. Coral are advertising vacancies at the moment. Why would you want to shut them down?”
A spokesman for bookmakers’ William Hill said: “I’m not even going to comment on something as partisan as this. It’s some stupid comment by some Hackney MP just trying to make a name for themselves.”
If you actually visit a Bookies in Hackney you'll find that most of the punters are OAPs using them as social clubs to meet their friends and get out of the cold. They mostly bet pennies. In Hackney it's cheap to open a shop but they obviously get the custom otherwise they wouldn't open the shops. The Vietnamese seem to love gambling so what do you suggest changing their whole culture?
There are no bookies in Mayfair or Kennsington because the high rollers living there bet on the internet or by the phone. They have better things to do than sit in a bookies and of course wouldn't lower themselves to visit on. Also shop rents and rates are to expensive.
Opening bookies in Hackney provides much needed jobs (10,000 people are on jobseekers allowance) and fills the empty shop units providing rates to the local council.
Stop being snobs and remember the majority of people in Hackney are working class not University educated middle class trustafarians living in Hackney because it's COOL
They are targeting areas like hackney! It obvious, there are morwe than two bookies on one street in some parts how would you explain that? There is a reason why they choose hackney, the government should intervien because it brings down the area by attrackting the drug dealers, addicts and alcoholics. Sorry to sterotypes but its the kind of people that I witness hanging around outside places like that. Something should be done.
I doubt there are many bookies in affluent areas in london, how does the number of bookies in Hackney compare to somewhere like Mayfair, or Kensington. There are more than enough bookies, there are plenty in Clapton where I live, but no banks, ironically the last bank in Clapton is now a bookie. I'd prefer the banks to return rather than more bookies. There was a successful resident campaign to stop a bookie opening under a residential block of flats at 144 Lower Clapton Road.
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