Football Governance Bill [HL]

Lord Foster of Bath Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 16th December 2024 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Foster of Bath]

143: Schedule 4, page 97, line 24, at end insert—
“(f) gambling advertising and sponsorship.”Member's explanatory statement
This amendment requires clubs to consult fans on gambling advertising and sponsorship.

[Lord Foster of Bath (LD)]

My Lords, I begin by apologising that my involvement in the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill has prevented me from attending earlier sessions of your Committee’s deliberation. But I am very conscious that the fan-led review, which in a sense led to the Football Governance Bill, found that many fans raised severe concerns about the level of gambling advertising and sponsorship in sport. This is especially notable because it was unprompted, yet nothing in the Bill addresses these concerns. It should, and that is why I am moving Amendment 143 and speaking to Amendment 255. In doing so, I declare my interest as chairman of Peers for Gambling Reform.

Gambling in the UK is worth £15 billion a year and with it comes gambling harm, which is a major problem in our country. It is worth reflecting that over half of the gambling industry’s profits comes from those already suffering harm from gambling. Official statistics show that millions of people, including a horrifying number of children, are impacted by gambling. The Department of Health says that there could be more than one gambling-related suicide a day. Gambling advertising, marketing and sponsorship encourage more gambling, more profit for operators and more gambling-related harm. It is a serious public health issue.

The previous Government’s White Paper on gambling included no meaningful measures to address it. Nothing was offered to tackle the relentless bombardment of gambling messages, costing the industry over £1.5 billion a year, which has grown exponentially since the liberalisation of advertising in the Gambling Act 2005.

Speaking from the Dispatch Box just a couple of years ago, the noble Lord, Lord True, said:

“My personal view, as a sports fan, is that I am sick and tired of gambling advertising being thrust down viewers’ throats”.—[Official Report, 27/1/22; col. 446.]


His view is supported by a huge percentage of the population, including football fans, over half of whom believe that all gambling advertising, marketing and sponsorship should be banned.

Research evidence backs the call for action. A group of academics recently highlighted the unprecedented number of young people being exposed to gambling adverts. They concluded:

“it has become quite clear that the gambling products being offered and the ways in which they are promoted are harmful to individual and family health and damaging to national life”.

Despite proposing no action, the White Paper itself even acknowledged that gambling marketing can encourage people to start gambling, to gamble more, or to resume gambling after stopping.

Of particular worry is the entrenched link between gambling and football. It has raised concerns about not only the welfare of fans—especially the younger ones, who I will come to in a minute—but the opportunities for match fixing and corruption. Though rare, such incidents serve as a stark reminder of the risk posed by financial incentives tied to betting. It must surely be questionable that some of English football’s gambling sponsors do not even operate here. For example, Nottingham Forest’s primary shirt sponsor this season is a gambling operator that targets customers in China, where gambling is illegal. Surely that sort of thing should not be allowed.

Again, of particular concern is the way young and impressionable fans, who idolise players and clubs, are inundated with gambling logos. These are emblazoned on kits, around stadia and in programmes—as well as on TV, radio and online. It has normalised the idea of betting and makes it seem like a harmless activity.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Fox of Buckley (Non-Afl)]

First, I would make a distinction between children and adults. Secondly, as somebody who is from a large, football-obsessed family, I am more than a little aware of all the encouragement that football fans have to put on a bet. But not all of them do when they are encouraged and, what is more, even if they do, they do not necessarily become problem gamblers, which is what is being posited. It can be something that they enjoy.

[Lord Foster of Bath (LD)]

This is not a case of me positing anything—I hope the noble Baroness accepts that. The figures I quoted are from the Gambling Commission and the Government.

[Baroness Fox of Buckley (Non-Afl)]

I have some figures, but I wanted to put forward a counter to these amendments without going into the details. I have spoken on this on many occasions in this House and I have written about it. I have figures, and we can swap our statistics. But I wanted to argue that it is proposed that allowing advertising of any sort around football, and allowing gambling to be associated with it, normalises gambling—but that is a slightly odd argument because gambling is a normal activity. The vast majority of people who put a bet on do so without a problem: it is part of their private leisure pursuits, which they enjoy. It is completely within the realms of spending money that they probably should not spend—it is Christmas and I have done a lot of that over the last few days when shopping. One makes choices and spends money that one probably should not spend, but it does not have to be turned into some kind of problem. It is our choice, and there should be some perspective about the threat.

The Gambling Commission does not give credence to the idea that gambling problems are completely out of control. Despite a lot of noise and rhetoric, there is no evidence that there has been an overwhelming increase in problem gambling since advertising was made legal by none other than Tony Blair’s Government in 2007.

--- Later in debate ---

Although I understand the reasons for the noble Lord’s amendments, for the reasons I have laid out I cannot accept them. I ask the noble Lord not to press them, but I look forward to continued dialogue with him on issues relating to gambling.

[Lord Foster of Bath (LD)]

My Lords, it has been a short but interesting debate that has raised many issues. I do not think now is the time for me to go through them all. Suffice it for me to say that the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, basically said that gambling is a matter of personal choice. That is a view she is entitled to take. The vast majority of people have come to the view that gambling, like alcohol, tobacco and drugs, is a public health issue. That means there is a need for a degree of intervention in that activity. I, and Peers for Gambling Reform, have been debating what the level of that intervention should be.

I am certain that gambling advertising, marketing and sponsorship lead to more harm in this country. We know that there is more than one gambling-related suicide every single day, and that should be of deep concern to us all. Collectively, we need to take more action than is currently being taken. That is why I hope we will have the opportunity to bring amendments such as this back at a later stage and to continue the debate then. At this stage, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 143 withdrawn.