More than 1,100 people have signed a petition backing a campaign to restrict the number of betting shops in Southwark.
The full BBC article is here
A copy of which is below
More than 1,100 people have signed a petition backing a campaign to restrict the number of betting shops.
Southwark Council's High Streets First campaign comes after residents raised concerns over 77 betting shops in the London borough.
The campaign wants a change in planning laws so that bookmakers moving into spaces emptied by businesses like banks or post-offices could be blocked.
Bookmakers say they create jobs and support the local economy.
Currently bookmakers are classed as financial and professional services for planning purposes, similar to banks or post offices, and they can move into premises emptied by a business in the same class without planning consent.
But the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) said the council has the power to refuse premises licenses.
Councillor Rowenna Davis, for Peckham, who launched the campaign, said the council was not against the gambling industry.
But the problem was bookmakers come under the same classification as banks and estate agents, thereby the council had "no meaningful powers" over their numbers, she said.
Ms Davis said: "When I walk through my area within 10 minutes I pass eight bookmakers and that means they are more common than post offices or corner shops. We know they are clustering in poorer areas.
"Once you get a number of bookmakers clustering in the area it's very difficult for other businesses to come in because they feel that area has been blighted by bookmakers."
'Poor areas targeted'
The ABB said councils have raised the issue before, but since 2005, the number of shops in Southwark fell from 82 to 75, in Hackney from 70 to 65, but in Haringey it rose from 59 to 63.
It added: "There are more betting shops on some high streets in London boroughs than there used to be.
"We make a significant economic contribution across London, especially in areas where town centre vacancy rates are high. We offer twice the number of jobs to young people without formal qualifications.
"In the borough of Southwark, for example, we employ 300 people."
A spokesman for Gambling Reform and Society Perception (Grasp) said: "In Haringey there is a clear targeting of betting shops in the poorer areas of the borough and those with a known demographic which is more likely to gamble.
"Similarly, Hackney has 64 betting shops where again a mapping of the location of these shops reveals they cluster in the poorer areas of the borough."
Labour MPs - Harriet Harman, for Camberwell and Peckham, and David Lammy MP for Tottenham - and Conservative councillor David Parsons, head of the Local Government Association's Environment and Housing board, have also backed the campaign.
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She spoke about this on the radio news - this morning? yesterday? - was pretty clear but IMHO didnt say enough about the FOBT's. As they are the most addictive and so most dangerous part of bookies' shops, and that they are used for money laundering, they should always be at the top of any list of criticisms. Otherwise it's just about 'harmless flutters' on the 3.30 at Newbury Park, or the odds on the Mayoral election, ie the public face of gambling.
"We make a significant economic contribution across London, especially in areas where town centre vacancy rates are high. We offer twice the number of jobs to young people without formal qualifications. In the borough of Southwark, for example, we employ 300 people"
This is of course, the economics of the madhouse.
The "significant economic contribution" is made, not to London as such, but to HMRC and the owners of the business ... at the expense of the community.
For the mug punters, this is not a zero sum game, but a sub-zero sum game. The punters, some of whom are less than 20 shillings in the pound, don't seem to appreciate this. And some of them, a signficant minority, are addicted to FOBTs.
High town centre vacancy rates can be a sign of problems, possibly of an area in decline. Betting shops don't arrest that decline, they accentuate it. Not only because few other businesses want to be alongside betting shops, but because crack-cocaine gambling outlets can out-bid normal businesses for rent and leases.
As for employment of people without formal qualifications: they may not have formal qualifications, but few if any of them are so dumb as to gamble themselves. Ask any employee in a betting shop if they gamble themsleves!
If we're talking about contribution to the economy, "young people without formal qualifications" would be better employed in a factory or similar where there is a genuine productive element. Employed in betting shops, they merely facilitate the transfer of cash from the poor to the wealthy.
Last week in the House, in response to a question, it was stated that at 31 March last year there were 32,000 FOBTs in Great Britain. Parliament needs to take urgent action to correct the pernicious Gambling Act passed under the last government.
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