Haringey has the 12th highest density of gambling premises in England, and almost all are in the east. An estimated 7,462 residents face the most severe harm.
Haringey has the 12th highest concentration of gambling premises of any council area in England, and almost all of them are in the east of the borough. Council public health officers counted 55 premises in the east and 6 in the west, which includes Crouch End, Muswell Hill and Highgate.
The figures come from a presentation to the Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel on Thursday 1 October. It was given by Will Maimaris, Haringey’s Director of Public Health, and Joe Garvey, the council’s project officer for gambling harms.
How Haringey compares
The pack ranks 330 local authorities by gambling premises for every 100,000 residents. Haringey has 62 premises, or 23.6 per 100,000. That puts it:
- 12th of 330 in England
- third of the 32 London boroughs, behind Westminster and Brent
The premises cluster along a handful of high streets, according to the pack:
- Wood Green High Road
- Green Lanes in Harringay, about a mile east of Crouch End Broadway
- the High Road in Tottenham, at White Hart Lane and at Bruce Grove
The officers’ map of premises is dated December 2025. Its east and west counts add up to 61, one fewer than the 62 in the national ranking, and the pack does not explain the difference.
Officers also want to test whether betting shops sit beside payday lenders, pawnbrokers and cash machines, which would make it quicker to get money to gamble. The pack says this is an assumption they would like to research, not a finding.
How many residents are affected
The pack uses estimates from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). They measure harm on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), where a score of 8 or more is the most severe level, once called problem gambling.
An estimated 7,462 Haringey residents score 8 or more. That is 4.09% of residents, against 3.35% across England and 3.64% across London. A further 3.55% are at moderate risk, so 7.64% in total score 3 or more.
Among the five north central London boroughs, only Islington has a higher rate at the most severe level, at 4.36%. Camden is at 3.93%, Enfield at 3.87% and Barnet at 3.38%.
The pack says people experiencing gambling harm are about twice as likely to die by suicide as people who are not.
What the council is doing about it
A levy payment to spend. Haringey has received £65,196 from the new statutory gambling levy, which all licensed operators pay. It has to be spent on prevention by April 2027. Some is already allocated, and the officers asked councillors for ideas on the rest.
A two-year north London project. Mind in Haringey leads the North London Tackling Gambling Harms Coalition with five councils: Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington. It has £250,000 over 2026 to 2028 from Gambling Research Exchange Ontario.
A World Cup advertising campaign. The coalition ran “Odds are they Win” during the summer’s tournament, aimed mainly at men aged 18 to 40. Across the five boroughs, the pack reports:
- 2,694,195 digital adverts served
- 234,226 people reached
- 17,155 clicks through to support
- an average cost of £0.58 a click
The campaign spread to almost 40 councils. The University of Bristol is helping to evaluate it.
Schools and GPs. Officers want to commission Gambling Harm UK to run sessions in 12 state schools in Haringey, at no cost to the council because the charity is funded by the levy. They are also looking at whether to appoint a GP as clinical lead for gambling harm.
Why the rules may be about to change
Until now, councils have had to aim to permit gambling premises licences that meet the legal requirements. The pack says the government has announced plans to abolish that principle, which comes from the Gambling Act 2005.
If it goes, officers say Haringey would be able to give more weight to local circumstances and to clustering when it decides applications. They plan to:
- improve the local evidence on gambling harm
- get residents, councillors and other bodies to object to applications
- update Haringey’s Statement of Gambling Policy so it can argue cumulative impact
What it means for you
- New betting shops and gaming centres need a licence. Applications are publicised, and residents can comment on them. The officers want more people to do that, and a change in the law could give those comments more weight.
- Most of this is not on Crouch End’s doorstep. The nearest cluster named in the pack is Green Lanes in Harringay. But the borough’s figures still include residents in the west, and online gambling does not stay on the high street.
- Help is free. The National Gambling Helpline, run by GamCare, is free on 0808 8020 133, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The scrutiny panel’s questions and its recommendations will appear in the meeting record once the minutes are published.
Sources
- Gambling Harms, presentation to the Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel, Haringey Council, 1 October 2026. Source of every figure in this article: the OHID prevalence estimates, the premises ranking and the east and west counts, the levy, the coalition funding, the campaign results and the plans.
- Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel, 1 October 2026, agenda and papers.
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