Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he last met representatives of the gambling industries to discuss the practice of offering free bets to young adults and the inclusion of messages regretting that they had not gambled in a while.
Answered by Helen Grant
Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the gov.uk website and are available at
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he last met representatives of the gambling industries to discuss the offering of free bets to 18 year olds on their birthdays.
Answered by Helen Grant
Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the gov.uk website and are available at
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he last met representatives of Gamblers Anonymous to discuss the industry practice of offering free bets to young adults and the inclusion of messages regretting that they had not gambled in a while.
Answered by Helen Grant
Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the gov.uk website and are available at
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he last met representatives of Gamblers Anonymous to discuss the industry practice of offering free bets to 18 year olds on their birthdays.
Answered by Helen Grant
Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the gov.uk website and are available at
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of fixed odds betting terminals on levels of gambling addiction.
Answered by Helen Grant
The problem gambling rate among adults in England and Wales, as assessed by the Health Surveys which are published by the NHS information centre, is estimated to be less than 1%, which is lower than in comparable jurisdictions such as the USA, South Africa or Australia. Successive British Gambling Prevalence Survey results - 1999, 2007 and 2010 - as well as the more recent Health Survey results in 2012, which cover the period from when FOBTs were introduced to present, demonstrate that levels of problem gambling have been static over this period.
The Government is not complacent about levels of problem gambling. We consider the future of the regulation of FOBTs to be unresolved and will continue to be led by the evidence to devise effective measures to bear down hard on gambling-related harm wherever it is found.
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he last met representatives of Gamblers Anonymous to discuss the regulation of fixed odds betting terminals; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Grant
Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the gov.uk website and are available at
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he last met representatives of the gambling industries to discuss the regulation of fixed odds betting terminals; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Grant
Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the gov.uk website and are available at
Asked by: Jim Murphy (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
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 potential effects of the Gaming Machine (Circumstances of Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 (S.I., 2015, No. 121) on (a) gambling addiction levels, (b) the total amount of money staked and (c) the profits of bookmakers and fixed odds betting terminal providers.
Answered by Helen Grant
The Gaming Machine (Circumstances of Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 (S.I., 2015 No. 121) were laid alongside an Impact Assessment carried out by DCMS (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2015/69/pdfs/ukia_20150069_en.pdf). In assessing the potential impact, the Impact Assessment took into account problem gambling levels as measured by Health Surveys for England and Scotland, the potential impact on staking behaviour and the profits of bookmakers.