In December 2025 we published a story on the concentration of adult gaming centres (AGCs) in the UK's most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Analysis of Gambling Commission data showed 664 of about 1,400 premises were in the top 20% of deprived areas.
To get the figures we first analysed data from the register of gambling premises from the Gambling Commission, filtering that data to AGCs. The postcode of each AGC was used to identify both its local authority and lower super output area (LSOA - a neighbourhood of around 650 households).
Indices of Multiple Deprivation for England, Wales and Scotland were then matched with each LSOA to obtain the deprivation decile for the area each AGC was located in. Decile 1, for example, means that area is in the 10% most deprived in the nation; decile 2 means the area is in the 11-20% most deprived, and so on.
We then divided the number of each local authority’s AGCs in the bottom two deciles (the 20% most deprived areas) by the total number of AGCs in that local authority to calculate the percentage of each authority's AGCs in the most deprived areas.
- Register of gambling premises from the Gambling Commission
- Indices of Multiple Deprivation for England
- Indices of Multiple Deprivation for Wales
- Indices of Multiple Deprivation for Scotland
- Anna Hargrave, CEO of charity Gamble Aware
- Allastar Gair, communications director, gambling industry trade association BACTA
- Deborah Heneghan, councillor, Kings Lynn
- Spokesman, Gambling Commission
- Charlie Barker, recovering gambling addict
- Local Government Association
- Spokesman, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government