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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government<i>, </i>further to the answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 12 January (HL Deb, col 2064), how many times the Gambling Commission has taken action for failure to prevent underage gambling in each year since 2010; and what were the penalties issued in each case<i>.</i>

The protection of children from being harmed or exploited by gambling is one of the three licensing objectives that underpin the regulation of gambling in Great Britain. The Commission use a range of tools to prevent children from accessing gambling, one of which is to issue penalties.

The Gambling Commission licence and regulate gambling operators but individual gambling premises (across the land based sectors) are regulated by licensing authorities (local authorities). Any individual action in relation to land based gambling premises regarding underage gambling would therefore be taken by licensing authorities; as such, the Government does not hold the number of people convicted of failing to prevent underage gambling.

In terms of online, from November 2014 the Commission’s regulatory framework was extended to include, for the first time, remote gambling operators that are based outside of Britain but are selling to customers here. In February 2017 the Gambling Commission prosecuted two men who were offering online unlicensed gambling to children. Fines and costs totalled £265,000.