Licensed bookmakers and licensed officesN.I.
Closing of licensed offices on certain daysN.I.
31.—(1) A licensed office shall not be opened or kept open for the transaction of business at any time on any [F1Christmas Day] or at such other times, if any, as may be prescribed by regulations.
(2) If paragraph (1) is contravened the licensed bookmaker and any servant or agent of his by whom the contravention was committed shall be guilty of an offence.
(3) In any proceedings for an offence by reason of a contravention of paragraph (1) it shall be a defence for the licensed bookmaker to prove that the contravention took place without his consent or connivance and that he exercised due diligence to prevent it.
F1Words in art. 31(1) substituted (27.4.2022) by Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 (c. 14), ss. 2, 17(2)
Conduct of licensed officesN.I.
32.—(1) The licensed bookmaker shall—
(a)display his bookmaking office licence in the licensed office; and
(b)exhibit in that office such notices in such form and in such positions as may be prescribed by regulations; and
(c)comply with such restrictions with respect to the exhibiting of other written matter or of signs of any description or of audible or visual displays in the licensed office as may be prescribed by regulations.
Para. (2) rep. by 2004 NI 1
[F2(3) Except as permitted by paragraph (3A) or (3B), no apparatus for making information or other material available in the form of sounds or visual images or both shall be used in the licenced office.
(3A) Subject to paragraphs (4) to (4B) such apparatus as is mentioned in paragraph (3) may be used in the licenced office provided that the matter seen or heard comprises only information about, and the coverage of, a sporting event including—
(a)information relating to any betting on such an event; and
(b)any other matter, including an advertisement, which is incidental to such an event or such coverage.
(3B) Subject to paragraphs (4) to (4B) such apparatus as is mentioned in paragraph (3) may be used in the licenced office provided that the matter seen or heard comprises only—
(a)information relating to any betting on any event in connection with which betting transactions may be or have been effected in that office; and
(b)the result of such an event.
(4) No apparatus for making information or other material available in the form of sounds or sounds and visual images shall be used in the licensed office so as to be audible outside that office.
(4A) No apparatus for making information or other material available in the form of visual images shall be used in the licensed office unless those images appear on a screen; and any screen so used shall not—
Sub-para. (a) rep. by 2004 NI 1
(b)be so positioned that those images can be seen from outside the licensed office.
(4B) No apparatus for showing visual images of a sporting event shall be used in the licensed office if—
(a)the service by means of which such images appear is not intended to be received by the general public or other licensed offices generally; or
(b)in the case of images that appear by means of the use of video recordings, identical recordings of the same event are not available to other licenced offices generally.
(4C) In paragraph (4B) “video recording” has the same meaning as in section 1(3) of the Video Recordings Act 1984.
(5) [F3Subject to paragraph (6) and Article 95(1)(b),] A licenced office shall not be used for any purpose other than the effecting of betting transactions and no music, dancing or other entertainment, except any entertainment which complies with the provisions of paragraph (3A), shall be provided or allowed, and no refreshment of any kind shall be served, in such an office.
[F3(6) A licensed office may be used as a place where persons may collect amounts payable by way of winnings in respect of competitions of the kind mentioned in Article 3(1A)(a).]]
(7) Except for the licensed bookmaker and his servant or agent, no person resorting to the licensed office shall be allowed to use any means of direct access between the licensed office and premises used for the effecting with persons resorting to those premises of transactions other than betting transactions.
(8) The licensed bookmaker himself or by his servant or agent shall not permit overcrowding or loitering in a licensed office.
(9) If any provision of paragraphs (1) to (8) is contravened the licensed bookmaker and any servant or agent of his by whom the contravention was committed shall be guilty of an offence.
(10) In any proceedings for an offence by reason of a contravention of paragraphs (1) to (8) it shall be a defence for the licensed bookmaker to prove that the contravention took place without his consent or connivance and that he exercised due diligence to prevent it.
(11) Where any advertisement, other than[F3 an advertisement published in a material form or] an advertisement to which paragraph (12) applies, is published—
(a)indicating that any particular premises are a licensed office; or
(b)indicating where any such office may be found; or
(c)drawing attention to the availability of, or to the facilities afforded to persons resorting to, such offices;
then, in the case of an advertisement in connection with the licensed office of a particular licensed bookmaker, that bookmaker, and in every case any person who published the advertisement or caused or permitted it to be published shall be guilty of an offence.
(12) This paragraph applies to an advertisement if[F3 it is published otherwise than in a material form and]
(a)it is published inside but not outside a licensed office; or
(b)it complies with such restrictions as may be prescribed by regulations and is, in such manner as may be so prescribed, published outside a licensed office—
(i)from a place inside such an office; or
(ii)in premises giving access to such an office;F3. . .
Sub-para. (b)(iii) rep. by 2004 NI 1
(13) In any proceedings for an offence under paragraph (11) it shall be a defence—
(a)for any person charged to prove that he did not know and had no reasonable cause to suspect that the advertisement was, and that he had taken all reasonable steps to ascertain that it was not, an advertisement as mentioned in paragraph (11); and
(b)for the licensed bookmaker to prove that the advertisement was published without his consent or connivance and that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the publishing of any such advertisement in connection with his licensed office.
(14) The Department may, by order subject to affirmative resolution, substitute for paragraphs (3) to (6) new provisions with respect to the facilities (other than those in respect of which a bookmaking office licence or a licence under the[F4 Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1996] is required) that may be provided in a licensed office and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, such an order may—
(a)require compliance with such restrictions as may be specified in the order in relation to—
(i)the use in a licensed office of any apparatus for making information or other material available in the form of sounds or visual images or both;
(ii)the use of a licensed office for any form of entertainment; and
(iii)the provision in a licensed office of any form of refreshment;
Sub-para. (b) rep. by 2004 NI 1
Employment of agentsN.I.
33. A person who, in connection with the business carried on in a licensed office, employs any other person directly or indirectly as his agent or collector of bets at any place other than that office shall be guilty of an offence.
Employment of disqualified personsN.I.
34.—(1) A licensed bookmaker who employs in his bookmaking business a person in respect of whom there is in force a disqualification order under Article 30 or 53 shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) In any proceedings for an offence by reason of a contravention of paragraph (1) it shall be a defence for the licensed bookmaker to prove that the contravention took place without his consent or connivance and that he exercised due diligence to prevent it.
Power to exclude drunken persons, etc., from licensed officesN.I.
35.—(1) Without prejudice to any other right to refuse a person admission to premises or to expel a person from premises, the licensed bookmaker or his servant or agent may refuse to admit to, or may expel from, the licensed office any person who is drunken, or is acting in a disorderly manner, or whose presence on the licensed office would subject the licensed bookmaker or his servant or agent to a penalty under this Order.
(2) Any person liable to be expelled from a licensed office under this Article, when requested by the licensed bookmaker himself or his servant or agent or a constable to leave that office, fails to do so, shall be guilty of an offence.
(3) A constable shall, on the demand of the licensed bookmaker or his servant or agent, help to expel from the licensed office any person liable to be expelled from that office under this Article, and may use such force as may be required for the purpose.