Llanelli’s Old Town Hall still stands but bingo halls vanish amid the rise of online gambling. (Image: Greg Balfour Evans / Alamy)
Carmarthenshire is the second largest geographical county in Wales, with a population of over 189,000. Historically, the main towns dotted around the county were furnished with a number of thriving bingo halls, betting shops, snooker halls, theatres, cinemas and even indoor and outdoor swimming pools.
The once-thriving array of independent family-owned shops has been boarded up or knocked down to make way for hubs and pawn brokers or they have been grabbed by charity shops selling everything we gave away. Bingo halls also fell victim but some old buildings are being repurposed and turned into gaming centres.
The criminal in this unfortunate turn of events for the communities nestled in the pleasant green valleys is online. Love it or loathe it, online shopping, banking and online gambling are here to stay, and it doesn’t really care who or what the victims of its success are.
To highlight the case in point, councillors in Carmarthenshire have been told that betting shops and bingo halls have been reduced by nearly a third in the last three years, reflecting a shift from bricks-and-mortar gambling to online casinos.
Reports in Welsh media state that council licensing officers have reviewed the authority’s gambling policy and recommended no major changes, but they acknowledged that nearly half of respondents to a consultation felt there were gambling-related problems in their area.
Licensing officer Emyr Jones told the council’s licensing committee there were 18 betting shops, bingo halls, adult gaming centres, horse-racing tracks, and family entertainment centres in the county compared to 26 three years ago. Eleven of the 18 were betting shops, four fewer than in 2022.
A committee report said a further review of the policy was likely after the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport completed its own review of the 2005 Gambling Act. The previous Conservative government published a white paper in 2023 setting out a range of proposals to reform gambling regulation.
Mr. Jones said there has been a shift to online gambling but didn’t have any “hard and fast” statistics about the turnover of bricks-and-mortar gambling venues in Carmarthenshire.
Cllr. Ken Howell asked what online gambling controls there were and said he’d heard stories of children becoming involved and getting into debt. Mr. Jones said the government’s white paper was looking at improving online safeguarding.
The council’s gambling policy consultation only led to 24 responses, including one from a license-holder. It found that 46% of respondents felt there were gambling-related problems in their area.
Just under a third of respondents felt gambling by children, young people, and other vulnerable people was a problem in their area. But 83% said they weren’t aware of problems as a result of gambling premises close to schools, sixth form colleges, children’s play areas, and treatment centres for drug, alcohol, and other addictions.
One person who responded said betting shops were “the tip of the iceberg” compared to online gambling but were “the first step for many people.”
Another respondent felt the UK’s approach to gambling was irresponsible. “Why would poorer communities such as Llanelli need more places where they can literally throw away money?” they said. “I’m not against gambling as a whole but the TV adverts and online advertising are out of hand and encourage poor financial decisions.”
A third person said, “There are at least two gambling premises in Ammanford where, as a member of the public, I have observed people losing money they did not have—also, when people have won money, they have gotten drunk/drugs with the winnings.”
Most of my career was spent in teaching including at one of the UK’s top private schools. I left London in 2000 and set up home in Wales raising four beautiful children. I enrolled at University where I studied Photography and film and gained a Degree and subsequently a Masters Degree. In 2014 I helped launch a new local newspaper and managed to get front and back page as well as 6 filler pages on a weekly basis. I saw that journalism was changing and was a pioneer of hyperlocal news in Wales. In 2017 I started one of the first 24/7 free independent news sites for Wales. Having taken that to a successful business model I was keen for a new challenge. Joining the company is exciting for me especially as it is a new role in Europe. I am keen to establish myself and help others to do the same.
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