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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government estimates the losses people accrue on B2 machines; and if he will make a statement.

Category B2 gaming machines generated around £1.8bn in revenue to the betting industry in 2016/17. However, players can access other types of gaming machine content on B2 gaming machines in betting shops (primarily B3) so we know that of this £1.8bn, a proportion (around 30%) is attributable to other gaming machine content. This is because industry data is categorised under the highest category of game available on that particular terminal. For example, if a terminal offers category B2 and B3 games, operators attribute all revenue to the B2 machine category.

We therefore estimate that in total players lost approximately £1.2bn on B2 gaming machines in 2016/17 (detail can be found in the consultation impact assessment at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/655970/Impact_Assessment_-_Consultation_on_proposals_for_changes_to_Gaming_Machines_and_Social_Responsibility_Measures.pdf ).

More information on patterns of play on B2 gaming machines can be found at the following link:

http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/Statistics-and-research/Statistics/Cross-venue-machines-data.aspx

The consultation on proposals for changes to gaming machines and social responsibility measures closed on 23 January. We will consider the CEBR report and other relevant information submitted as part of the consultation before arriving at final decisions and the Government will publish its response in due course.