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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to ensure that (a) high stakes gambling takes place only in (i) casinos and (ii) other highly supervised premises, (b) Fixed Odds Betting Terminals are not located in bookmakers and (c) casinos have more appropriate numbers of slot machines.

High stakes gambling’ is a relative term and may be open to different interpretation. The Gambling Act 2005 and associated regulations establish the types and levels of gambling permitted in a range of licensed environments and the controls required to be put in place to keep that gambling fair and safe for all.

Regardless of the level of stakes, the Gambling Commission requires all operators providing facilities for gambling to adhere to the licence conditions and codes of practice relevant to their activity designed to minimise harm generated by gambling.

Under the 2005 Act fixed odds betting terminals are permitted in casinos and bookmakers. High street betting shops are limited to four machines per premises. The Act also set the current gaming machine entitlements for casinos.

The Government recently introduced new regulations in April which ended unsupervised stakes above £50 on FOBTs in betting shops. We will want to assess the impact of these measures before we consider any further legislative options.

Any discussion about changes to gaming machine entitlements in casinos would need to be accompanied by robust proposals from the industry for managing any additional risk of harm to players that may arise.