Found: Her areas of expertise include women’s gambling, gambling and debt, virtual gambling, young people

Found: LotteryinstantsPrivate lotteriesChart 7: Highest activity prevalence rates for DSM-IV-MR-J 'problem gambling

Found: LotteryinstantsPrivate lotteriesChart 6: Highest activity prevalence rates for DSM-IV-MR-J 'problem gambling

Found: Her areas of expertise include women™s gambling, gambling and debt, virtual gambling, young people gambling

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the study by Gabriel A. Brooks and Luke Clark entitled, The gamblers of the future? Migration from loot boxes to gambling in a longitudinal study of young adults, published in Computers in Human Behaviour, volume 141, in April 2023.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

His Majesty’s Government struck a balanced and evidence-led approach in our review of gambling regulation. We continue to monitor research, and have carefully considered the findings in this study. We recognise that there is a growing body of research that provides evidence of an association between loot box purchases and gambling activity, as well as evidence of a link with a variety of harms, including harmful gambling. However, research has not established whether a causal relationship exists, and there are a range of plausible explanations.

In order to address gaps in research around these and similar areas, we have developed and published the Video Games Research Framework to support high quality independent research into video games, including loot boxes. We are also introducing a statutory levy charged to gambling operators which will raise trusted, long-term funding for gambling research. We are clear that we will continue to look carefully at any further research that results from that and take action if necessary.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support combating gambling addictions in the community at large, particularly among younger people.

Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

His Majesty’s Government recognises that, while millions of people gamble without experiencing problems, for some it becomes an addiction with serious consequences. It is particularly important to take steps to protect those, particularly young people, who are at risk of experiencing gambling harm.

In April the Department for Culture, Media and Sport published a White Paper following our review of the Gambling Act 2005. The White Paper outlined a series of measures to tackle practices and products which can drive harm and to ensure that people who are at risk of gambling harm and addiction are protected. These include new, frictionless financial risk checks, a stake limit for online slots games, improvements to customer-led tools, and tougher restrictions on bonuses and direct marketing. These measures will be complemented by strengthened messaging about the risks associated with gambling. The White Paper also contained a commitment to introduce a new statutory levy paid by operators to fund research, prevention, and treatment. In July 2023 the Gambling Commission also published a vulnerability statement, outlining its approach to identifying, supporting, and protecting consumers who are in vulnerable situations.

We are working with the Gambling Commission and others to bring the measures from the White Paper into force as quickly as possible, and have already published consultations on a number of important proposals so that we can finalise details ahead of their implementation.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to help prevent addiction to gambling among young people.

Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government recognises that it is particularly important to take steps to protect young people at risk of gambling harms and addiction.

We recently published a white paper following our Review of the Gambling Act 2005, and are working with the Gambling Commission and other stakeholders to bring these measures into force as soon as possible, subject to further consultation where appropriate. The paper introduces a range of proportionate measures to tackle practices and products which can drive harm and ensure that people who are at risk of gambling harm and addiction are protected, including young people. These include strengthening the land-based age verification regime, especially around gaming machines in pubs, bringing society lotteries and football pools into line with the National Lottery by raising the minimum age to 18, and putting new expectations on operators to consider age as a potential factor in customer vulnerability.

Over recent years, the Government has worked with the Gambling Commission and others on a range of measures to protect young people from gambling related harm. This includes tightening the age verification requirements for both land-based and online operators in 2019, and raising the minimum age to play the National Lottery to 18 and over in 2021. Last year the Committees of Advertising Practice updated advertising rules so that gambling adverts cannot have strong appeal to children even if they appeal more to adults.

In addition to these regulatory changes, specific steps have been taken to prevent and treat gambling harm in young people. Since September 2020, teaching young people about the risks relating to gambling, including the accumulation of debt, has been included in the curriculum for all schools under Health Education in all state-funded schools, alongside Relationships Education (primary) and Relationships and Sex Education (secondary). In 2019 the NHS young person gambling addiction service was also launched.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many young people have been treated in the NHS national children and young person’s pilot gambling clinic in the past year, broken down by (1) age, and (2) the region of the country they live in.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

This information is not collected centrally in the format requested.