The last high street bank in the historic harbour town of Whitby closed its doors in early 2025, angering residents facing the loss of crucial services.
Now a 24-hour adult gaming centre operated by Admiral, promoting slot machines and gambling, is opening in the former premises of the Halifax bank. More than 500 residents opposed the centre, complaining it would harm the town’s heritage and lead to night-time disturbances.
It is one of dozens of adult gaming centres approved on appeal by the Planning Inspectorate, which adjudicates on planning appeals, despite local opposition and concerns over the impact of gambling.
Figures obtained by The Observer under freedom of information laws reveal that, out of 89 planning applications involving adult gaming centres that went to the Planning Inspectorate, 59 (66%) were approved from 2021 to 2025. The Observer understands that ministers now want to introduce new laws to restrict their spread across the country’s high streets. An investigation in 2024 revealed that more than 300 such centres are running 24 hours a day.
While high street banks slot machines have been lost one by one, slot machine venues are thriving. At Whitby, the planning inspector rejected the community concerns in December, noting that a 24-hour operation on Whitby’s Baxtergate would avoid concentrated numbers leaving “at closing or opening times”.
The appeal decision report stated: “The proposed use would provide a range of gaming machines limited to low stakes of between 10p and £2. The use would be strictly controlled through legislation which seeks to prevent problem gambling and its associated effects, particularly for vulnerable people.”
‘The high street should be for families, not for gambling all through the night’
‘The high street should be for families, not for gambling all through the night’
Rose Rylands, 65, who was born in Whitby and conducts walking tours, said: “The high street has collapsed and there is nothing for locals any more. The whole town is geared for drinking and eating fish and chips.”
Rylands described planning permission for an adult gaming centre as the “bottom rung of the ladder”. “There will be people coming and going at all hours and it doesn’t fit the character of the town,” she said.
Benita Nicholson, 59, a Whitby resident who also opposed the new venue, said her parents in their 80s travel 25 miles to Scarborough for banking services. “We have amusements and arcades in Whitby, but the high street should be for families, not for gambling through the night,” she said.
There were four banks on Baxtergate a few years ago. Derek Bastiman, a Conservative councillor at North Yorkshire council, said: “We need local shops and banks on the high street. People need somewhere to deposit and withdraw money rather than places to gamble with it. Everything today seems geared to gambling.”
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Adult gambling centres are reporting record revenues, which rose to £710m in the year to June 2025. There are more than 1,400 adult gaming centres across the UK.
In March last year, Alison Hume, the Labour MP for Scarborough and Whitby, presented to parliament a petition opposing the proposed centre. She said residents were particularly disappointed the venue replace a Halifax bank, “leaving the town without any bank branches”.
Under the Gambling Act 2005 there is a legal duty on licensing authorities “to aim to permit gambling”. MPs are demanding more powers to block gambling venues, which have clustered in high streets in some of the country’s most deprived areas.
Andrew Pakes, a Labour MP who has campaigned on the issue, said: “Residents are fed up that the rules are rigged against them when it comes to having a say over our city centres and high streets.
“This isn’t about axing consumer choice, it is about communities and councils being able to have a voice over the kind of places we want to live.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “We’re taking action to prevent unwanted clusters of gambling shops on the high street – giving councils more power to say no to new ones.”
Officials say powers under the new English devolution and community empowerment bill will allow local government to block gambling operations with a detrimental impact on the community as part of a wider £5.8bn “pride in place” programme to revitalise communities.
Luxury Leisure, which trades as Admiral, was contacted for comment.
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Photograph by Dave Bolton / Getty Images