Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will introduce an affordability system for gambling, incorporating assessments of average bets and average levels of disposable income, to prevent extreme financial losses and avoidable harm.
The Government and Gambling Commission recognise the benefits of considering a customer’s financial circumstances as part of an assessment of whether their levels and patterns of spend are likely to be harmful, and also that any such checks need to be proportionate. The Gambling Commission’s consultation and call for evidence on Remote Customer Interaction (including on issues to do with affordability) received over 13,000 responses and the Commission published an interim update on its website outlining next steps. We will continue to work closely with the Commission on this issue in the run up to publishing our white paper on our Review of the Gambling Act 2005.