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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the research undertaken by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling into the social problems caused by fixed-odds betting terminals.

The Government remains committed to ensuring that people are protected from being harmed or exploited by gambling, and notes with interest any research relevant to that objective.

New legislation came into force to improve player protections on B2s (commonly referred to as ‘fixed-odds betting terminals’) in April, and the law was also changed to require planning applications to be submitted to local authorities for new betting shops.

We continue to monitor the effects of existing controls and if need be will take action if these controls are found to be insufficient.