National Lottery: Contribution to Good Causes

Lord Harris of Haringey Excerpts

Monday 10th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

The noble Lord raises a good point about the need to protect children from gambling advertising. As he will be aware, operators are prohibited from targeting advertising at children. The Advertising Standards Authority strengthened the rules in 2022 to ban content of strong appeal to children from gambling ads. The wider issue of advertising involves the Gambling Commission introducing new requirements for operators to allow customers to have greater control over any direct marketing they receive. I have personally set the industry a clear task to raise standards further in this area.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, I refer to my interest as chair of the Fundraising Regulator. Can the Minister comment on media speculation that a legal challenge to the Gambling Commission’s decision is possibly being mounted by one of the unsuccessful bidders for the franchise? The Gambling Commission reportedly said that, if that proceeds, it could lead to a reduction in the moneys available for good causes. Can the Minister explain why the good causes will be affected, rather than this being a matter between the Gambling Commission and the unsuccessful bidder?

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

While I understand the legitimate interest of my noble friend and others, it would not be appropriate to comment at this stage on the legal process. The Gambling Commission is confident that it ran a fair and robust competition to award the fourth licence. As my noble friend noted, legal challenges relating to the award of the fourth licence are ongoing. DCMS is not a party to those, so it would not be appropriate to comment at this time.