Scrapping the UK’s “aim to permit” rule could force primary legislation and reopen Gambling Act reform

The UK government’s decision to repeal the gambling licensing principle known as “aim to permit” is not just a local planning tweak. Experts say it sits inside the 2005 Gambling Act itself, which means the change may require primary legislation and could pull the wider retail gambling sector into another round of reform.

1. The “aim to permit” rule tells councils to approve gambling premises licensing where applicants have met Gambling Commission policy, guidance and licensing objectives. In practice, it has been one of the core rules shaping local decisions on betting shops and other gambling premises.
2. Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced the repeal on 11 August as part of a package giving councils more control over high streets. The same plan also puts Adult Gaming Centres — shops offering 24-hour access to gaming machines — into the planning permission regime.
3. Andrew Lyman, Gibraltar’s Gambling Commissioner and a former director at the UK Gambling Commission, said a “fundamental change” to the Act’s underlying principle would need to be changed by primary legislation. He said the government might try to work around it through planning rules, but that would be difficult to implement without legal conflicts and could lead to judicial review.
4. Louisa Clark, an independent licensing and compliance consultant and former Gambling Commission compliance manager, said there is “little choice” but to amend the Gambling Act through primary legislation. She said “aim to permit” is written directly into the Act and cannot be removed by ministerial announcement, local policy changes or Gambling Commission guidance.
5. The next step is an upcoming consultation, where the government is expected to set out whether it wants to overhaul the Gambling Act, pass a new Act, or introduce a bill focused specifically on removing “aim to permit”. That detail matters because the drafting route will determine how much of the wider licensing framework gets dragged into the process.

For high-risk operators and PSPs, the immediate issue is not just whether councils get more discretion. It is whether a licensing change becomes the opening move in a broader legislative rewrite. The Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) has already used the announcement to call for a new Gambling Act based on “public health principles”, which tells you the direction of travel in the debate.