Gambling premises licence

The London Borough of Waltham Forest is currently consulting on the latest revision of our policy and hereby gives notice that having reviewed its Statement of Principles issued under Section 349 of the Gambling Act 2005 it intends to publish its statement on 2 January 2025. The consultation runs until 12 November 2024.

If approved, the Statement of Principles will come into effect from 31 January 2025 for three years.

Download the proposed Statement of Principles (Word).

Appointments can be made by contacting Licensing by phone or email

The council is responsible for issuing gambling licences to all premises where gambling takes place.

Download the gambling premises policy (Word)

The Gambling Act 2005 (the Act) transfers responsibility for granting gaming and betting permissions from licensing justices and grants new powers to licensing authorities in relation to the licensing and regulation of the use of gambling premises.

The Act came into force on 1 September 2007. The act repeals the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963, the Gaming Act 1968 and the Lotteries and Amusement Act 1976. The Act covers two main activities:

• Providing facilities for gambling
• Using premises for gambling

The Act contains three licensing objectives that underpin the legislation:

• Preventing gambling from being a source of crime and disorder, being associated with crime or disorder, or being used to support crime
• Ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way
• Protecting children and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling

The Gambling Act 2005 requires a Licensing Authority to publish its gambling policy, referred to as a Statement of Principles and the London Borough of Waltham Forest published its initial Statement of Principles in January 2007.

A requirement of the Act is that the policy is reviewed at least every three years. This version of the statement of principles is for the period 2019 to 2022, coming into effect on 31 January 2019.

Please see Notice of Publication (Word)
Please see the updated version of the statement (Word)

Alternatively, it can be inspected during office hours:

The Licensing Service
Town Hall
Fellowship Square
Forest Road
Walthamstow
E17 4JF

The London Borough of Waltham Forest recently consulted on the sixth revision of our policy and hereby gives notice that having reviewed its Statement of Principles issued under Section 349 of the Gambling Act 2005 it intends to publish its statement on 2nd January 2022.
The Statement of Principles will come into effect as from 31 January 2022 for three years.

Appointments can be made by contacting Licensing. Telephone 020 8496 3000 or licensing@walthamforest.gov.uk

The Gambling Commission is responsible for issuing operating and personal licences under the Act. These licences are described in more detail below:

Operating licence

An operating licence is required by anyone wishing to provide facilities for commercial gambling and will be issued for an unlimited period, although an annual fee will be payable. The commission has the power to review a licence, amend licence conditions and revoke a licence.

Personal licence

There are two types of personal licences:

• Management (management functions will include persons such as directors or partners of a company and also managers or supervisors handling significant amounts of money)
• Operational (operational functions include posts where the individual has the ability to influence the outcome of gambling for example bingo callers or croupiers)

• Premises licence guidance note (PDF)
• London Borough of Waltham Forest - Gambling Act 2005 Premises Licence Fees - 2024-2025 (PDF)
• Permits guidance note (PDF)
• Responsible authorities - Grant and Variation (PDF)
• Responsible authorities - Transfer (PDF)
• Application form for a premises licence under the Gambling Act 2005 (Word file)
• Application form for an alcohol licensed gaming machine permit or notification of 2 or less gaming machines (Word file)