The process is governed by the Council’s Gambling Policy, also known as the Statement of Principles.
It sets out the principles we apply when carrying out our work under the Gambling Act 2005.
The policy must be reviewed every three years. The Council is now consulting on a new policy to cover from 31 January 2025 to 30 January 2028.
The proposed changes include adding information on:
- the application process
- the Council’s routine inspections
- gambling prevalence and social responsibility
- vessels and vehicle licences
- machine permits
- small society lotteries
- unlicensed family entertainment centres
- child sexual exploitation.
The information regarding small casinos has been removed. This follows the reallocation of the unused small casino licence by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in September 2023.
As the permission to issue a small casino premises licence had not been used since it was granted in 2008, the Secretary of State reallocated the licence to another area.
A copy of the new policy highlighting the proposed changes and a survey for people to give their views are on Torbay Council’s consultation website.
The consultation runs for six weeks from Friday 12 July to Friday 23 August 2024. The responses will be considered by the Council’s licensing team as part of the policy review.
Cllr Hayley Tranter, Cabinet Member for Adult and Community Services, Public Health and Inequalities, said: “The Gambling Policy is an important document which provides information about how we work.
“I urge anyone with an interest to have a look at the proposed changes and give us your feedback. This will be taken into account as we shape the new policy.”
Paper copies of the survey are available in libraries in Torquay, Paignton and Brixham.
The NFL’s move to insert its logos into slot games would have not so long ago been completely unthinkable. But the 2018 Supreme Court ruling allowing legalized sports gambling nationwide unleashed sports leagues and teams into the betting world.
What stands out about the mobile slot game, and the earlier deal with Aristocrat, is slots is a casino game, not sports betting. Heretofore NFL gambling deals were largely with sportsbooks, though some teams have had sponsorships with Native American casinos.
There are different types of mobile slot games. Some allow gambling regularly as the slot spins. Envision the old lady, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, with a cup full of change and pulling the lever in a casino or jabbing at the touch screen. This is not the type of game the NFL is licensing its IP to, at least not in the first iteration.
The plan is for the game to require a small fee to buy digital coins used to win prizes, a source familiar with the agreement between the NFL and Aristocrat wrote in a text. When the digital coins are depleted, the user buys more coins.
“There’s a big business if you can get people to buy the virtual currency to play the games,” said Dustin Gouker, a gambling consultant, who said these types of games are known as social casinos. “Online casinos are a very big business. But in the United States, it’s limited, far more limited than sports betting because it’s only in just over a handful of states. The big ones are Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and West Virginia. So it’s a very big business in those states, especially, it usually outpaces sports betting.”
Responsible gaming groups and some state regulators have long opposed online casino games because of the ease of playing them–and losing money–on phones. Online slot games move fast, usually quicker than the physical machine, and a user can lose a lot quickly. Such a debate is unfolding in Maryland, for example.
“I imagine that the plan is to get into real money online casinos in the United States, if not immediately, and then down the road,” Gouker said of the NFL.
The NFL deferred comment to Aristocrat.
“We are currently in a phase of market testing which all of our games go through,” wrote Ben Judah, a spokesman for the game developer Product Madness, which is a unit of Pixel United, a division of Aristocrat.
Licensing names and likenesses to slot machines is not uncommon outside of sports. Gouker points to TV shows like Wheel of Fortune and Seinfeld. But other than the NFL, Gouker is unaware of any other sports league to do so.