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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has considered making changes to the existing requirements for (a) full and (b) remote ancillary licences for society lotteries in the context of increases in the use of handheld electronic devices in recruiting subscribers.

I am aware of this issue, which was raised with me when I met with representatives of the Lotteries Council on 23 May.

Section 4 of the Gambling Act 2005 states that where a telephone (or other forms of electronic communication) are used to participate in gambling, it will be treated as remote gambling.

Under the Gambling Act all operators that offer remote gambling are required to hold a remote operating licence. This means that if a lottery sells tickets face to face and remotely by telephone or online it will need two licences. The holder of a non-remote lottery operating (society) licence pays an annual fee of only £50 for an ancillary licence, if its remote proceeds in that year do not exceed £250,000. Annual fees for standalone remote licences range from £400 to £796 depending on proceeds.

I therefore have no current plans to amend the society lottery licensing arrangements in the Gambling Act.