Agenda and draft minutes

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It was confirmed that all items would be heard in Part I.

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Officers introduced the report. The application was for a new bingo premises licence under Section 159 of the Gambling Act 2005, which had been made on behalf of the applicant, Merkur Slots UK Limited, part ground floor, 62 Station Road, Hayes, UB3 4DF.

The application was received by the Licencing Service on 16 June 2025 and the closing date for representations was 14 July 2025. The application was sent to all responsible authorities and was advertised in accordance with the relevant regulations. No representations had been received from any of the responsible authorities. One representation had been received from an interested party, who was not in attendance today.

Additional information had been received on 14 and 15 October 2025 from the legal representatives for Merkur Slots Limited, which included additional submissions and case statements from the Head of Compliance, Operations Director and Head of Gaming Machines at the company; policies and procedures and additional guidance from the Gambling Commission; and extracts from the relevant legislation. This information had been circulated to the Sub-Committee and was found as an addendum to the report.

The report contained officer observations, highlights from the Code of Practice and Hillingdon Statement of Gambling Policy, and Members were invited to consider the application.

APPLICANT

The applicant’s barrister noted that this was an application by Merkur Slots UK Limited for a new bingo premises licence.

The applicant had produced a useful, detailed set of supporting materials.

The business of Merkur Slots was the provision of safe and pleasant gaming environments. It was a business in which Merkur Slots were very highly experienced. It ran these sorts of venues very successfully across the country. It was operating in a highly regulated environment and had done so successfully across over 230 premises.

The case officer was thanked for setting out the relevant framework.

The supporting bundle contained concrete evidence of the way in which Merkur Slots went about their business; met and promoted the gambling licencing objectives; how it went about compliance with the regulatory regime; and how it met the specific expectations set out in the Hillingdon policy.

The premises would be equipped fully with high-definition CCTV; age verification would be ensured; and vulnerable people would be protected, and all of that both in policy and processes.

This was an applicant that had never been refused a licence, and none of its trading licences had ever been subject to the review process. This was a responsible, trustworthy operator capable of operating in a vast range of localities.

A local area risk assessment had been completed, which had included active consultation with the responsible authorities, including the police authority. The applicant knew its responsibilities and aimed to positively assist the local area. It was noted that a fire risk assessment was not the purpose of the local area risk assessment and had been done separately.

The police had not brought any issues to the attention of the applicant. This was an applicant which was justifiably proud of its excellent  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.