Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to give local government new powers to prevent adult gaming centres from opening.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Local authorities play a crucial role in the regulation of gambling at a local level and have a range of powers in relation to gambling premises. We want local authorities to feel empowered to make decisions that are in their communities’ best interests. We will look to complement local authorities’ existing powers in relation to licensing of gambling premises, in line with the gambling white paper published in April 2023.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 24 March (HL5621), whether they have commissioned an industry-led assessment of the impact of gambling advertising.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We have set the gambling industry a clear task to do more to work together to ensure that gambling advertising and sponsorship is appropriate, responsible and does not exacerbate harm. The Betting and Gaming Council has since commissioned an advertising report which will be published in due course. We are committed to reviewing the best available evidence from a wide range of sources and working with all key stakeholders to inform next steps in this space and ensure effective measures are in place to protect those at risk.
Strengthened measures on socially responsible incentives (SRI) are being delivered through the Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP). As the statutory regulator, the implementation date is a matter for the Gambling Commission and the rationale for its decision was set out in their formal response to the SRI consultation.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the new rules increasing the safety and simplicity of consumer promotional offers in gambling cannot be introduced sooner than 19 December.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We have set the gambling industry a clear task to do more to work together to ensure that gambling advertising and sponsorship is appropriate, responsible and does not exacerbate harm. The Betting and Gaming Council has since commissioned an advertising report which will be published in due course. We are committed to reviewing the best available evidence from a wide range of sources and working with all key stakeholders to inform next steps in this space and ensure effective measures are in place to protect those at risk.
Strengthened measures on socially responsible incentives (SRI) are being delivered through the Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP). As the statutory regulator, the implementation date is a matter for the Gambling Commission and the rationale for its decision was set out in their formal response to the SRI consultation.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 24 March (HL5621), what are the parameters of the task they have set the gambling industry to raise standards, and how this work will be monitored.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As I set out in my speech at the GambleAware Annual Conference, the industry can and should do more to work together to ensure that gambling advertising and sponsorship is appropriate, responsible and does not exacerbate harm. This includes the need for an assessment of current levels of gambling advertising across the full range of channels. The Betting and Gaming Council has commissioned an advertising report which will be published in due course. We will closely consider any findings to inform next steps.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the Gambling Commission complies with its obligations under the Gambling Act 2005, including taking regulatory action against operators if necessary to protect vulnerable people from harm.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Gambling Commission is an independent regulator, but as the sponsoring department we have a number of channels available to assess the Commission’s delivery against its objectives and duties, including regular meetings with the Commission’s senior leadership. There are a range of regulatory interventions that the Commission is able to make, and the outcomes of this regulatory action are published on its website. Since 2016/17, the Commission has taken over 100 enforcement actions, and this has resulted in more than £207 million in fines and regulatory settlements being paid by gambling operators.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will develop a national definition of harmful gambling advertising.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We recognised that more can be done to raise standards in gambling advertising and we have set the gambling industry a clear task to raise standards in this area to ensure that the levels of gambling advertising does not exacerbate harm and this work will be monitored closely.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of findings published on 18 March by the City of York Council, Next Generation York: the health of adolescents in our city, particularly that 16 per cent of young people had gambled, and of those 25 per cent took money to gamble without permission, and 14 per cent had conflicts with family or friends over gambling.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We are committed to reviewing the best available evidence from a wide range of sources and working with all stakeholders in order to ensure there are robust protections in place to protect those at risk of gambling related harm, particularly children and young people.
The Government uses a wide range of sources to inform our understanding of children and young people’s gambling behaviour and harm in Great Britain, such as the 2024 Young People in Gambling Report. The department has noted the findings of the Next Generation York report from the City of York Council.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on the proposal to deliver a gambling ombudsman, as set out in the White Paper High stakes: gambling reform for the digital age, published 27 April 2023.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We continue to explore options for improving Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), including the establishment of a gambling ombudsman. We are working closely with all stakeholders in the sector to deliver on this, including the BGC, the Gambling Commission, existing ADR providers and the Ombudsman Association. Further steps will be outlined in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to review the proposed staking limit of £5 for online slots sooner than the outlined five-year period.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As set out in the legislation, the online slots stake limits regulation must be reviewed within five years. We are able to review the stake limits at any time if there is evidence to do so.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the gambling industry’s spending on advertising, sponsorship and marketing, including online forms of advertising and marketing such as content marketing.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
According to GambleAware’s research in 2017, the total advertising and marketing spend by gambling companies totalled £1.5 billion, of which:
£747 million was spent on online advertising and direct marketing
£234 million on TV advertising
£149 million on social media advertising
£60 million on sponsorship
£301 million on advertising through market affiliates
£70 million on other offline advertising
There are existing robust rules in place to ensure that advertising, whenever it appears, is socially responsible, with a particular regard to the need to protect children, young persons and other vulnerable persons from being harmed and exploited. Gambling adverts cannot be targeted at children and cannot be of ‘strong appeal’ to children, for example they cannot feature Premier League footballers and celebrities popular with children.
However, we recognise that more can be done to improve protections. We have set the gambling industry a clear task to raise standards and this work will be monitored closely.