Labour's Diane Abbott spoke about the "scourge" of the "proliferation" of betting shops, stating that in Hackney there were approximately 90 such shops, three times the national average.
Hitting out at their "predatory nature", she said, they targeted the poorest areas with the highest levels of unemployment and poverty.
Ms Abbott backed Ms Portas' recommendation that such shops, should be put in a separate use class of their own for planning decisions.