Online Gambling

Lord Browne of Belmont Excerpts

Thursday 23rd November 2017 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Browne of Belmont]

To move that this House takes note of the challenges facing problem gamblers, specifically with respect to online gambling, and of the Multi-Operator Self Exclusion Scheme about to be introduced to help online gamblers.

[Lord Browne of Belmont (DUP)]

My Lords, I am very pleased to have secured this debate today, which provides for the first focused debate that we have had in this House on online gambling since the passing of the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act in March 2014.

I am acutely aware that in recent months there has been considerable discussion about the challenges posed by fixed-odds betting terminals. I want to make it very clear that I completely share the concerns of those who have spoken out against FOBTs and I am very pleased that the current DCMS consultation asks about stake reduction and includes the option of a £2 stake.

I have not sought this debate because I take a different view and want to distract attention away from the FOBT debate. Indeed, as a Northern Ireland Peer, I am bound to say that there is real doubt about whether FOBTs are even legal in Northern Ireland. In raising this debate today, I am simply saying that there is another problematic aspect of gambling that we also need to talk about—namely, online gambling. The Gambling Commission itself recognises that in addition to 430,000 problem gamblers in Great Britain, there are a further 2 million at risk. However, I have decided to use that term in today’s debate because everyone knows what it means.

Having made those broad introductory points, I shall define the online gambling sector. According to the Gambling Commission, the most recent figures for 2015-16 demonstrate that the online gambling sector is the largest gambling sector in Britain today. It is worth £4.5 billion. However, this figure does not account for the fact that now 42% of National Lottery transactions are online. If you account for this, the true value of the online sector is £5.9 billion. To put that in context, high street betting is worth £3.3 billion and that of traditional casinos £1 billion. Online gambling accounts for 44% of all gambling in Britain today. Britain’s online gambling sector is, moreover, the largest regulated sector in the world, with 21 million active accounts. In addition to this distinctive claim, UK online gambling has another which is less talked about. The latest problem gambling prevalence figures, published by the Gambling Commission in July, show on page 30 that the highest overall prevalence of at-risk gambling was observed among those who participated in online gambling on slot, casino or bingo games—some 34.9%.

Problem gamblers—defined as those who gamble to a degree that compromises, disrupts or damages family, personal or recreational pursuits—were estimated to comprise 0.8% of the adult population of Great Britain, with such individuals far more likely to be men than women. This translates to an estimated 430,000 problem gamblers in Great Britain in 2015, with a further 2 million having been deemed at risk of problem gambling.

It is no great surprise that online gambling should have the greatest claim on problem gamblers because, unlike other forms of gambling, online is available 24/7 and it is much easier to engage in problematic play without your family finding out because you do not even have to leave your bedroom to do it. Moreover, the fact that it is all done electronically without exchanging real money makes it easier to get caught up in problematic play. Mindful of this, we should be in no doubt about the devastating effects online gambling can have on people’s lives.

There is the case of the 23 year-old accountant, Joshua Jones, who, unbeknown to most people, was an online gambling addict. He committed suicide in 2015 with £30,000 of gambling debts. Then there is the case of the 18 year-old Omair Abbas, who committed suicide after generating just over £5,000 worth of debt from online gambling in 2016. Then there is the case of Adam Billing from Liskeard, who at the age of 27 threw himself off the 120-foot high Moorswater viaduct because of spiralling debts resulting from an online gambling addiction. If you want to get a sense of the misery caused by online gambling, it is well worth visiting a problem gambling website and reading the posts of problem gamblers as they describe the dreadful situations that they face and seek to support each other.

Last week saw the publication of the Gambling Commission’s Strategy 2018-2021, which highlights this through recent polling. It states that,

“our most recent research published in 2017 showed that 78% of people believe that there are too many opportunities to gamble; 69% of people feel that gambling is dangerous for family life; and only 34% believe that gambling is fair and can be trusted, down from 49% in 2008. There are also significant public concerns about the volume, nature and scheduling of gambling advertising and the impact this could have on future generations”.

This is hugely important.

Having defined some of the contours of online gambling today, I will now examine some specific public policy options for helping online problem gamblers. My first engagement with online gambling came in 2014, when I responded to the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act, which was narrowly concerned with online gambling. During the debates on the Bill I argued that online problem gamblers are discriminated against because they cannot access one of the main protections for problem gamblers—self-exclusion—on anything resembling a level playing field with offline problem gamblers. On a strong day, an offline problem gambler might be able to self-exclude from the four betting shops in his or her town and thereby cut himself off from local gambling opportunity for the duration of his self-exclusion. If an online problem gambler manages to self-exclude from four online sites, however, there is no sense in which he can cut himself off from the opportunity of gambling for the duration of his self-exclusion because there still are hundreds if not thousands of other sites he can visit without even leaving his bedroom. It is physically impossible for him to self-exclude from all the available sites.

In response to this I proposed, through amendments, multi-operator self-exclusion, whereby the online problem gambler needs to self-exclude only once with the Gambling Commission or its nominated body, and all online sites with a Gambling Commission licence are required to respect the self-exclusion. On Report the Government announced that they were finally persuaded of the need for multi-operator self-exclusion, but explained that they did not want to implement it on a statutory basis. I was asked to withdraw my amendment on the basis that the Government had asked the Gambling Commission to introduce multi-operator self-exclusion and it would make substantial progress towards its realisation in the next six months. Mindful of the Government’s willingness to compromise, I decided to withdraw my amendment. In June this year it was finally announced that the Remote Gambling Association would run multi-operator self-exclusion—or MOSES, as it is now referred to—for the Gambling Commission, and that it would be called GAMSTOP and would be up and running by the end of the year.

As we address this subject nearly four years later, I make the following points. First, we should be in no doubt about the importance of MOSES. On Tuesday this week, I was very privileged to welcome to Parliament, along with the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, a number of recovering problem gamblers. I was delighted that other Peers were also able to be present, including the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, the noble Lord, Lord Foster, and the noble Baroness, Lady Masham. One recovering problem gambler explained how, when his wife discovered his addiction, they worked at tackling it together, and she stood alongside him as he self-excluded from the gambling site he had been using. All went well for a while until, a couple of weeks later, he received an email from another gambling provider offering him a free bet for £50 and he got sucked back in again. I asked him whether he felt that multi-operator self-exclusion would be helpful. He said, “It would have saved my marriage”. I asked another recovering online problem gambler whether he had ever tried to self-exclude. “Oh yes,” he said. “I have self-excluded from 20 different sites. The problem is, though, that there are always lots of other sites”.

Mindful of that, I make the following points. First, it is regrettable that nearly four years on from when the commitment was made we still do not have multi-operator self-exclusion up and running. We cannot afford to waste any more time. Secondly, it is important that no corners are cut in implementing GAMSTOP and that it operates effectively. Can the Minister please inform the House how the Government are monitoring progress to ensure that GAMSTOP is implemented robustly? Thirdly, part of the success of GAMSTOP will be letting all online gamblers know of its existence in an ongoing way. Can the Minister assure the House that the Government will ensure that the existence of GAMSTOP will be properly promoted, not through a one-off campaign but in a sustained and ongoing way?

Fourthly, I draw the attention of the Government and this House to some real concerns that have been expressed by online problem gamblers about the proposed remit of MOSES under the Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice. Provision 3.5.4 mandates a self-exclusion system for each website. Provision 3.5.5, meanwhile, mandates multi-operator self-exclusion for online gambling sites. This suggests a two-tiered approach to self-exclusion, which is causing considerable worry. One problem gambler described the concern in the following terms: “You only want to self-exclude when you are desperate. When you reach that point, no one wants to self-exclude from one site and not another”.

Online problem gamblers’ key concern is that having a two-tier system will undermine the efficacy of MOSES. First, if individual websites are trying to run their own independent self-exclusion mechanism as well as MOSES, that means resources which could have been focused on MOSES to make it work well are diverted elsewhere. Secondly, if there are different levels of self-exclusion, it will inevitably cause confusion. Some problem gamblers will find out about one means of self-exclusion and not the other. There is a significant risk that some will assume that their self-exclusion will cover all sites when it actually covers only one.

It does not take a genius to see that a two-tiered approach would be in the short-term interest of the industry. Can the Minister provide an undertaking that he will tell the Gambling Commission that self-exclusion must be provided on a single-tiered basis through MOSES? In any event, I ask him to arrange a meeting, which he would chair, of the Gambling Commission, the Remote Gambling Association and myself, to which I can bring the concerned problem gambling groups. This would be a very worthwhile exercise.

Having dealt with measures that cut people off from gambling through self-exclusion, we must look at provisions that should be made earlier in the process. In this regard, I welcome a series of changes that are being made to the Gambling Commission codes of practice and technical standards from 1 April next year, which will help. However, in the current context, more could be done. In Sweden, players gambling on the state-owned gambling operator Svenska Spel have the option of using a programme called Playscan, which uses behavioural analytics. It prompts players about behavioural change, indicates that a problem might be developing, and provides information about how to limit their gambling or where to find help. In Finland, mandatory daily and monthly loss limits are required by the gambling regulator. On top of that, there is a limit of €5,000 on the amount of money which can be held in a gambling account. The maximum daily loss is set at €500. In addition, transfers from bank accounts to a gambling account cannot be made between midnight and 6 am. This creates a natural boundary for gamblers akin to betting shops.

On the question of a levy, the industry is supposed, by voluntary agreement, to contribute 0.1% of gross gambling yield to the charity GambleAware, which allocates the money to service providers that help problem gamblers, such as the Gordon Moody Association. In the last year, however, the industry failed to invest even 0.1% of gross gambling yield. It managed just £8 million. GambleAware has pointed out that as well as failing to reach 0.1% of GGY, this is also completely inadequate. If there are 430,000 problem gamblers, it is fair to assume that at any one time at least 10% of them—43,000—will be looking for help. The £8 million, however, only enabled it to reach 8,000 people, thus falling short by some 35,000. Meanwhile, it left no money at all for investing in helping the 2 million at risk.

GambleAware has now called for the levy to be made statutory and suggests that it needs to be in the region of £45,000 per annum to address the present need. Professor Jim Orford, an expert in problem gambling, has suggested that rather than being calculated on the basis of 0.1% of gross gambling yield, the levy could be 0.8% to reflect the general problem gambling prevalence figure. In some ways, however, he points out that a more just approach would be to base the figure on the takings that come from problem gamblers, which, writing in 2012, computed to 14% of GGY and which would have come in at £780 million. I clarify that neither he nor I am asking for that, but I hope that it puts in context how grossly irresponsible the £8 million is. Using the regulation-making powers of the Minister with respect to the levy would obviously benefit all problem gamblers. Clearly, however, given that the highest problem prevalence rate pertains to online, this proposal would greatly benefit online problem gamblers.

I very much look forward to listening to the contributions of noble Lords to this debate and especially to the Minister’s response. I beg to move.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Browne of Belmont]

My Lords, I am extremely grateful to everyone, including the Minister, who has taken part in today’s debate. It has been an excellent debate, with support right across the House. I do not think that anyone could have failed to be moved by all the contributions. I find myself at the conclusion with a strong sense that, to coin a phrase, something must be done.

I am grateful to the Minister for setting out what has been done, but the Government should not underestimate the level of public concern and I hope they will mediate on the political significance of the recent evidence from the Gambling Commission. Public faith in gambling has fallen dramatically in the past nine years. While I certainly did not hear complacency in the Minister’s response, I am not totally convinced that the Government are fully seized of the importance of this issue.

There is a mismatch between the significant technological possibilities for enhancing online gambling and the current proposals in the DCMS consultation. I very much hope that the Minister and the Secretary of State will take away all the excellent proposals that have been made in today’s debate and use them in the current consultation process. I hope that they will accept that while the current consultation proposals for online gambling are good as far as they go, they need to go further. I hope that when they respond to the consultation they make clear their determination not to allow multiple individual self-exclusion mechanisms to continue to exist but mandate their replacement with GAMSTOP. I hope that they will prohibit the marketing of gambling games to children and, even more importantly, prevent children’s access to such games through age verification. I hope that they will introduce a statutory level of at least 0.8% and that they will end the lending of money for gambling through credit cards. I hope that they will look at prohibiting online betting between midnight and 6 am.

I have listened very carefully to the Minister, but I do not think he responded to my specific request for a meeting with himself, GAMSTOP, the Gambling Commission and problem gamblers.

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

I am very happy to take that request back to the department and put it before the Minister responsible for gambling.

[Lord Browne of Belmont]

I welcome that. Finally, I think there is a lot more work to be done. As we do it, we should not forget Joshua Jones, Omair Abbas, Adam Billing and, back home, Lewis Keogh, and their families. We should seek to build a public policy framework that means that their suffering will not be repeated by others.

Motion agreed.