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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make it her policy to ban all gambling sponsorships in association football.

On 27 April we published our white paper setting out our conclusions and next steps on gambling advertising and sponsorship, as well as other issues in the broad scope of our Gambling Act Review.

The Gambling Commission requires all marketing activities by gambling operators, including sport sponsorships, to be undertaken in a socially responsible fashion. To ensure high standards for gambling sponsorship across the sport sector, the government will continue to support the sector’s efforts to implement standards for social responsibility through a cross-sport Code of Conduct.

We also welcome the Premier League’s recent announcement that it will ban gambling sponsors from the front of shirts, bringing sponsorship in line with recent rule changes from the Advertising Standards Authority preventing Premier League players from appearing in gambling adverts.