Gambling Reform

Lord Butler of Brockwell Excerpts

Tuesday 29th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I reassure my noble friend that we are considering a very wide range of evidence. Our call for evidence received over 16,000 submissions from a wide range of organisations—from charities, academics and the gambling industry, but also broadcasters, local government and sports organisations. We are considering it all carefully.

[Lord Butler of Brockwell (CB)]

My Lords, in their response to the Select Committee report, the Government said,

“The Committee is also right to say that further progress to make gambling safer does not need to wait for the outcome of the Act Review.”


Can the noble Baroness update the House on what action has been taken so far?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I would be breaching the Lord Speaker’s guidance if I were to give the noble Lord the full list, but his point is important. We have not waited for the end of the review to take action where it is needed. To give a couple of examples, in the past 18 months, we have banned gambling on credit cards and introduced new rules to limit the intensity of online slot games.