William Hill: Breaches of Player Protection

Lord Sterling of Plaistow Excerpts

Wednesday 29th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

As the commission made clear, it looked at tougher sanctions. However, because the operator in this instance admitted its fault and has started to take steps to address it, the commission chose to impose the regulatory penalty that it did. It is making financial penalties available. In relation to this case, it is also requiring the company to undergo a third-party audit to assess how it is implementing its anti-money laundering and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls. The commission is using the powers that it has at its fingertips.

[Lord Sterling of Plaistow (Con)]

My Lords, one of the major concerns is about the effect this is having on children. Headmasters and heads of major schools I have spoken to of late have said that the impact this is having on children between the ages of 10 and 15 or 16, and on how their parents and others are gambling, is going to have a very adverse effect in the future, particularly because of the point made on advertising.

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

My noble friend is right to highlight the importance of ensuring that children are not encouraged to gamble or to do so in a problematic way. That is why we have raised the age for participating in the National Lottery to 18 and introduced new rules on advertising to make sure that adverts with a strong appeal to children are not allowed. We will look at the wider issues as we consider our review of the 2005 Act.