Britain’s street market operating AWP machines in FECs, adult gaming centres and pubs, has a new government overseer.
The new Liz Truss Cabinet has Michelle Donelan as culture secretary, who will control, among other sectors, the gaming industry. A separate minister of gaming will be appointed under her in the coming weeks.
Donelan is a former education minister and replaces Nadine Dorries at the department of culture. A former government whip, Donelan worked in the media and entertainment industry before entering Parliament.
She is the Member of Parliament for Chippenham, an English constituency, and was elected in 2015.
UK trade association BACTA, through its chief executive John White, commented: “We welcome the appointment of a new Prime Minister. The campaign for the Tory Party leadership meant that government was put on hold for the summer and we are desperate for some active, decisive and positive leadership on the critical issue of the day, namely the cost of doing business and specifically the cost of energy.
“BACTA is calling for an energy price cap, a cut in VAT on electricity to 5 per cent, a cut in machine duty to 5 per cent and the reintroduction of a number of the helpful Covid support measures, such as a rates holiday and a ‘time to pay’ scheme.
"We are adding our shoulder to the wheel of sister trade organisations, such as the CBI and UK Hospitality and we hope that Liz Truss will, by the end of the week, tell us what she plans to do to help businesses survive this crisis. We cannot wait any longer. We called for immediate action over three months ago and the business landscape has got considerably worse in the meantime.
“Liz Truss will also have to encourage her team, including the new DCMS Secretary of State, Michelle Donelan, to open up the Gambling Review to ensure that the recommendations of ex-gambling minister, Chris Philp, are evidence-led as we were promised. We look forward to working with him or her and the new gambling minister once appointed.
"There is a lot on the plate of the new Prime Minister, but we would urge her to recognise the unique pressures our sector [is] under in addition to those facing businesses generally, namely we can’t pass on costs on gaming machines because government sets our maximum price of play, and we can’t reclaim VAT on costs associated with gambling. The latter puts an extra 20 per cent on top of the already eye-watering increases we are seeing to our energy costs.”
