Existing licence
Your existing
bingo licence has been automatically renewed until 31 August 2007
by the licensing justices. To continue operating your business
after 1 September, you need to make advance applications under the
Gambling Act 2005 for the following:
- To the Gambling Commission for a bingo operating licence;
- To the Gambling Commission for any personal licences required
by your business;
- To your licensing authority (if your premises is within the
Peterborough area, your licensing authority is Peterborough City
Council) for a bingo premises licence.
If you make available any of the following facilities to
customers, you will also need to obtain an ancillary remote bingo
operating licence from the Gambling Commission:
- Linked bingo
- Hand held bingo terminals
- Automated bingo terminals
- Operating licences
You need to apply to the Gambling Commission by 27 April 2007
for your operators licence to qualify for continuation rights. This
means you will be treated as having an interim operating licence
effective from 1 September 2007, even if your application has not
be resolved by that date. The Gambling Commission has issued its
own guidance on the application procedures. You can find this on
the Gambling commission's
website
Personal licences
The Gambling commission has also issued separate guidance on who in
your business requires a personal licence. This is also on the
Commission's website as above. You should apply for your operating
and personal licences to the Gambling Commission as soon as
possible. We can not determine your application for a premises
licence until you have obtained these.
Premises licences
If you apply for your new premise license between 21 May and 30
July 2007, you will qualify for continuation rights. You can then
continue to operate after 1 September 2007 even if your application
has not been resolved by this date. You will be required to abide
by the relevant mandatory and default premises licence conditions
that come into force on 1 September 2007. Details of these
conditions will be available from the Gambling Commission.
As an existing operator, if you apply for your premises licence
before 1 September 2007 you will in most cases qualify for
grandfather rights and be guaranteed a premises licence under the
new Act. There are two types of grandfathered premises licence
applications fast track and non-fast track detailed below.
Fast track grandfathered premises licence application:
- Must be granted by the licensing authority.
- The new mandatory and default conditions will be attached to
your premises licence and nothing more.
- We will not be able to amend default or attach additional
conditions at point of issue (these can be reviewed after your
licence has been issued).
- The administration procedure is straightforward - no hearing
and no need to publish notice or notify responsible
authorities.
- Representations can not be made.
- Due to the reduced amount of admin time, the fee will be
lower.
Non-fast track grandfathered premises licence application:
- We must ultimately grant at least a premises licence with the
new mandatory and default conditions attached to it (same as fast
track process).
- We may grant or refuse your request to exclude or vary a
default condition.
- When we grant your licence, we may attach other
conditions.
All normal requirements of making a premises licence application
apply you must publish a notice and inform responsible authorities.
Representations can be made by responsible authorities and
interested parties. There may be a requirement for a hearing. Your
fee will be higher than fast track applications to reflect the
increased costs in time and administration incurred by this
licensing authority. If you do not make an advanced premises
licence application and apply after 30 July 2007, we can not
guarantee that your premises licence will be issued before 1
September 2007. You will therefore not be licensed after this date
and will have to cease operating until your licence has been
issued.
Fees, application forms and guidance
Details of fees, application forms and guidance on how to make
an application is available on the application information
page.
Gaming Machines
Your premise licence gives you an automatic entitlement to
provide a certain number of gaming machines. Details of your
entitlement is available on the stake, prize and machine allowances
page.
Flowchart
The simple application guide for bingos (37kb) appears in Adobe®
Acrobat® (PDF) format. In order to view it you will need to have
Acrobat Reader installed. (Those with visual impairments may wish
to investigate Access Adobe, which provides tools and information
to help make PDF files more accessible.)
Further Information
For further information concerning the Gambling Act 2005, please
contact the Licensing Team. The Gambling Commission can be
contacted on 0121 230 6666
Contact details
For further information and guidance
please contact our licensing team