Getting the Bingo Hall Back Again? Gender, Gambling Law Reform, and Regeneration Debates in a District Council Licensing Board

Abstract

This article explores the gendered nature of gambling promotion as a modality of economic regeneration in the aftermath of the Gambling Act 2005. Using an exploratory case study of a district council licensing board, I examine how the gambling forms that reflect women’s gambling cultures are faring under the current legal environment, focusing on the apparent contrast between casino promotion and bingo neglect. I ask what this reveals about the intertwining of legal reform, gender, and perceptions of worthwhile risk-taking in attempts to promote local development. In particular I probe the discrepancy between the state’s legal regime (more restrictive of casinos than bingo halls) and local actors’ regeneration ambitions (centred on casinos). In this way I examine what local legal actors ‘see’ as being legally and economically necessary or possible as they encounter a new legislative landscape around gambling.