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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what research her Department has (a) conducted and (b) commissioned on the social and economic effects of fixed-odds betting terminals in the last 12 months.

In 2016 the Government announced a review of Gaming Machines and Social responsibility, which includes fixed odds betting terminals, and launched a call for evidence. As part of the ongoing work on the review the Department has considered research and evidence from a variety of external sources, as well as the responses received to the call for evidence.

The RGSB was set up by the Gambling Commission to advise on priorities for research relating to responsible gambling. GambleAware, an independent charity, leads on commissioning and funding research into gambling-related harm and supporting education and treatment programmes, taking into account the priorities set out by the RGSB. All gambling licence holders are required to make an annual financial contribution to one or more organisations that perform research, education or treatment for gambling-related harm, and most chose to support GambleAware.

GambleAware has published a number of research reports into fixed odds betting terminals since 2010. These are available on its website: https://about.gambleaware.org/research/research-publications/