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  1. Home
  2. Licensing authorities
  3. Codes of Practice
  4. Section C - Gaming machines in clubs and premises with an alcohol licence

Contents

Section C - Gaming machines in clubs and premises with an alcohol licence

This is the Commission’s Code of Practice issued under section 24 of the Gambling Act 2005 (opens in new tab) (the Act) relating to provision of facilities for gaming machine gambling in accordance with club gaming, club machine and alcohol licensed premises permits.

This includes:

  • Registrations under Parts II and III of the Gaming Act 1968 (opens in new tab) which, under transitional provisions, are treated as club gaming and club machine permits respectively
  • Club gaming and club machine permits issued under the Club Gaming and Club Machine Permits (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (opens in new tab)
  • Premises which have a licence issued by a Licensing Board under section 26(1) or 47(2) of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 (opens in new tab) authorising the sale of alcohol on the premises.

      • Code provision 1.1

      1. Compliance with the code of practice should be the responsibility of a designated person:
        • in pubs in England and Wales: the designated premises supervisor (which the Licensing Act 2003 (opens in new tab) requires as a condition of any alcohol premises licence)
        • in premises which are licensed to serve alcohol for consumption on the premises under the relevant Scottish licence: the premises manager (which the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 (opens in new tab) requires as a condition of the premises licence), or, where an occasional licence is held, a responsible person designated by the holder of the licence.
        • in clubs in England and Wales:
          • if an alcohol licence is held, the designated premises supervisor
          • if no alcohol licence is held, a responsible individual to be nominated by the club management or other governing body elected by the members.
        • in clubs in Scotland:

      2 Location and operation of machines

      All permit holders

      Compliance with these provisions is a condition of your permit, and failure to do so could result in revocation of the permit.2

      Code provision 2.1

      1. All gaming machines situated on the premises must be located in a place within the premises so that their use can be supervised, either by staff whose duties include such supervision (including bar or floor staff) or by other means.
      2. Permit holders must have in place arrangements for such supervision.
      3. All gaming machines situated on the premises shall be located in a place that requires a customer who wishes to use any ATM made available on the premises to cease gambling at the gaming machines in order to do so. ‘ATM’ means a machine located on the premises, which enables a person using it to obtain cash by use of a credit or debit card.

      3 Access to gambling by children and young persons

      Compliance with this section is not a condition of your permit. However it sets out good practice in this area and the Commission considers it should be implemented by permit holders.

      Code provision 3.1

      1. Permit holders should put into effect procedures intended to prevent underage gambling.This should include procedures for:
        • checking the age of those who appear underage
        • refusing entry to anyone unable to produce an acceptable form of identification.
      2. Permit holders should take all reasonable steps to ensure that all relevant employees understand their responsibilities for preventing underage gambling.
        • Permit holders should only accept identification which:
        • contains a photograph from which the individual can be identified
        • states the individual’s date of birth
        • is valid
        • is legible and has no visible signs of tampering or reproduction.
      3. The Commission considers acceptable forms of identification to include: any identification carrying the PASS logo (for example Citizencard (opens in new tab) or Validate (opens in new tab)); a driving licence (including provisional licence) with photocard; or a passport.

      Code provision 3.2

      1. Procedures should be in place for dealing with cases where a child or young person repeatedly attempts to gamble on category B or C machines, including oral warnings, reporting the offence to the Commission and the police, and making available information on problem gambling.

      4 Complaints and disputes

      Compliance with this section is not a condition of your permit. However it sets out good practice in this area and the Commission considers it should be implemented by permit holders.

      Code provision 4.1

      1. Permit holders should put into effect a written procedure for handling customer complaints and disputes regarding the use of gaming machines on their premises.
      2. A ‘complaint’ means a complaint about any aspect of the permit holder’s conduct of their permissible activities, and a ‘dispute’ is any complaint which:
        • is not resolved at the first stage of the complaints procedure and
        • relates to the outcome of the complainant’s gambling transaction.
      3. The designated person should ensure that:
        • customers are told the name and status of the person to contact about their complaint
        • customers are given a copy of the complaints procedure on request or on making a complaint
      4. all complaints are handled in accordance with the procedure.

      2 Compliance with these provisions is a condition of the relevant permit as a result of the Gambling Act 2005 (opens in new tab): section 271 for Club Gaming Permits, section 273 for Club Machine Permits, section 282 for alcohol licensed premises using their automatic machine permissions and section 283 for licensed premises Gaming Machine Permits and alcohol licensed premises Gaming Machine Permits.

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      Section B - Equal chance gaming in clubs and premises with an alcohol licence
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