Gambling: Children

(asked on 17th December 2020) - View Source

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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statement in Government Response to the House of Lords Gambling Industry Committee Report: Social and Economic Impact of the Gambling Industry, published on 8 December, that gambling advertising did not correlate to gambling participation among 11 to 24 year olds, what plans they have to undertake a review of the effects of gambling advertising on children as part of theĀ Gambling Act Review.


Answered by
Baroness Barran Portrait
Baroness Barran
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This question was answered on 7th January 2021

The government launched its Review of the Gambling Act 2005 on 8 December with the publication of a Call for Evidence. As part of the wide scope of that Review, we have called for evidence on the benefits or harms of allowing gambling operators to advertise. We welcome any relevant evidence, including on the effects of gambling advertising on children.

The Gambling Commission has worked closely with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on the issue of affiliates in recent years and has tightened its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP). As a result, many operators have scaled back or terminated their affiliate programmes to come into line with regulatory expectations. Affiliate advertisement standards have also improved markedly as a result of the joined up work of the Commission and the ASA.

Due to ongoing compliance work, there has rarely been the need to take enforcement action against operators. Where there has, three gambling operators have been sanctioned due to breaches of rules committed by contracted affiliates since 2018/19.

Reticulating Splines