Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the trends in the level of gambling content in video games played by children; and if she will make a statement.

Protecting children and the vulnerable from being harmed or exploited by gambling is a core objective of the regulation of gambling in Great Britain, and a priority for the government.

The statutory regulator, the Gambling Commission, monitors the participation of children in gambling through a range of data sources including complaints, academic research, and the annual Young People and Gambling Survey, which in 2017 included specific questions in relation to video gaming. The results of the survey are due to be published soon. The Gambling Commission has also asked its expert advisors, the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board, to examine the wider relationship between children and gambling.

The Gambling Commission is engaging with the video games industry and with a wide variety of stakeholders, including child protection groups, to highlight the risks of gambling linked to video games to parents, consumers and the wider public. The government’s Internet Safety Strategy published on 11 October considers options for working with the online video games industry to improve video gaming safety

The government recognises the risks that come from increasing convergence between gambling and video games. The Gambling Commission is keeping this matter under review and will continue to monitor developments in the market.