Betting Shop Opening Time Limits

While people can bet and gamble all day long, every day of the year thanks to their mobile devices, many people still choose to visit a betting shop on the high street in order to satisfy their betting needs.

Obviously, that is something that cannot be done 24 hours a day.

For those that prefer to visit real life locations, they should be aware of opening time limits for betting shops in the UK.  In the past betting shops were more restricted in the way they had to look (blacked out and unattractive) and what they could offer (couldn’t display odds or adverts), and that also included the times they could open.  In more modern times those rules have been relaxed but there are still limits on opening hours.

Betting Shop Opening Hours

As of 2007, thanks to the 2005 Gambling Act, high street bookmakers in the UK have been allowed to stay open until 22:00 all year round, whereas previously they would need to close their doors at 18:30 during the winter.

It hasn’t always been the case but there are no Sunday restrictions either, save for Northern Ireland where, for the time being, there are.  The UK apart from Northern Ireland scrapped Sunday opening restriction in 1994 under the Sunday Trading Act.

Even this though is soon to change for Northern Ireland with new legislation being drawn up this year to allow for betting shops, and bingo halls, to open on Sundays and Good Friday.

Sunday Staff

Sunday horse racing didn’t begin in the UK until 26 of July 1992 when Doncaster held the first ever Sunday meeting. By the turn of the millennium there were still only around five Sundays per year in which racing was permitted and bookmakers would open their doors.

At the time, there was only ever night racing permitted up to three nights a week and only in the summer months.

While evening racing and Sunday racing is staged all year round now, it is only of July this year that Sunday evening racing has been trialled in the Sunday Series for which the bookies opened for business.

Betting shop staff do not have to work on Sundays if they started their job before February 2004 in Northern Ireland, or January 1995 in the rest of the country.  To this day betting shop staff can opt-out of Sunday working unless it is their only working day.