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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of first stake free offers on (a) the incidence of gambling addiction amongst (i) children and young people and (ii) other people and (b) people who already have such an addiction.

The Government remains committed to ensuring that people are protected from being harmed or exploited by gambling. As part of this, following a review of its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice, last year the Gambling Commission introduced a range of measures to ensure that marketing and advertising is socially responsible. This included a new requirement that the marketing of ‘free bet’ offers is open, transparent and not misleading.

The Government remains alive to concerns in this area and continues to make clear to the gambling industry that it expects them to demonstrate that they are improving existing player protection initiatives and evaluating the effects of previous initiatives.

Looking ahead, the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board have identified this as a priority area for research. The Responsible Gambling Trust is therefore preparing to conduct research into the impact of marketing and advertising on young people’s gambling perceptions, attitudes and behaviour.