Apply for, vary or transfer a gambling premises licence

You will need a gambling premises licence if you want to run any of the following types of gambling business:

casino
bingo
adult gaming centre
family entertainment centre
track and other betting premises

For gaming permits and gaming machines at licensed premises and clubs, please see our page on gaming permits and gaming machines.

For details on how we use data relating to licence holders and applicants, please see our privacy notice for licence holders and applicants.

How to make an application

To apply for a gambling premises licence, you must be:

18 years old or over
authorised to make a gambling application for the premises

Before you apply for a premises licence, please read our Statement of Gambling Principles and review the information on operating licences from the Gambling Commission. You should also review our Local Area Profile and take note of the mandatory and default conditions that would be attached to any licence granted.

Depending on what you want to do, you will need to complete one of the following:

There are other application forms available on request for vessels.

When completing the form, you may wish to consider using conditions from our pool of model conditions.

Once completed, send your form to us at the below address with:

a plan of the premises
the fee – see our gambling premises licence fees
a completed risk assessment for your premises based on the nature of your business and the Local Area Profile – applications for new licences, provisional statements and variations only

Important – on the day you submit your documents you must also:

complete a notice of the application for responsible authorities using one of the following templates and email a copy to each of the responsible authorities
advertise your application on the premises – please complete the notice of application to be published using one of the following templates, then display it in A4 size in a prominent location for no less than 28 days from the date of application
arrange for the same notice to be published in a locally circulated newspaper – this must appear within ten working days of the date of application.

What happens next

People will have 28 days to comment on your application. If we don’t receive any comments, we will grant your licence.

If we do receive comments, our Licensing Panel will need to look at your application within 20 working days. The Licensing Panel will either grant your licence, grant it with some extra conditions, or refuse it.