Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of PaddyPowerBetfair's introduction of a £500 monthly cap on losses for younger customers.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
We welcome recent steps taken by industry to raise standards and increase protections for customers, including PaddyPower/Betfair’s introduction of its £500 cap and the Betting & Gaming Council’s codes of conduct on high value customer schemes and online game design.
The government and the Gambling Commission are continuing work to consider protections in online gambling. Earlier this year, the Gambling Commission launched a consultation and call for evidence on the steps remote operators should be required to take to identify and protect customers at risk of harm, including on issues to do with affordability. It received over 13,000 responses and the Commission has published an interim update on its website outlining next steps.
The government launched its Review of the Gambling Act 2005 in December with the publication of a Call for Evidence which received 16,000 responses. The Review will be wide-ranging and evidence-led, and aims to make sure that the regulation of gambling is fit for the digital age. We are considering all evidence carefully and will publish a white paper outlining any conclusions and proposals for reform in due course.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made on the potential effect of Esports Betting on gambling-related harm.
Answered by John Whittingdale
We continue to work with the video games industry, other government departments, and relevant regulatory bodies to ensure games are enjoyed safely. We launched a call for evidence in September to understand players’ experiences with loot boxes and to examine evidence of potential harms. This received over 30,000 responses and we have been working to evaluate fully the evidence gathered. The response will be published in the coming months and will set out preferred actions and potential solutions to any issues identified from the evidence.
The government regularly engages with the Gambling Commission and other bodies to discuss emerging trends, including esports betting. Esports betting is regulated with the same protections as any other sports, and operators must abide by the same regulation and license conditions.
Data from the Gambling Commission’s quarterly surveys shows that in the year to December 2020 9% of adults reported they had ever bet on esports with money or items. Further details can be found at: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-and-research/publication/taking-a-more-in-depth-look-at-online-gambling#ref-4 The government does not collect statistics on the player base of people opening loot boxes, playing social casino games or accessing twitch gaming streams.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with (a) the Gambling Commission, and (b) gaming operators on the development of Esports Betting.
Answered by John Whittingdale
We continue to work with the video games industry, other government departments, and relevant regulatory bodies to ensure games are enjoyed safely. We launched a call for evidence in September to understand players’ experiences with loot boxes and to examine evidence of potential harms. This received over 30,000 responses and we have been working to evaluate fully the evidence gathered. The response will be published in the coming months and will set out preferred actions and potential solutions to any issues identified from the evidence.
The government regularly engages with the Gambling Commission and other bodies to discuss emerging trends, including esports betting. Esports betting is regulated with the same protections as any other sports, and operators must abide by the same regulation and license conditions.
Data from the Gambling Commission’s quarterly surveys shows that in the year to December 2020 9% of adults reported they had ever bet on esports with money or items. Further details can be found at: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-and-research/publication/taking-a-more-in-depth-look-at-online-gambling#ref-4 The government does not collect statistics on the player base of people opening loot boxes, playing social casino games or accessing twitch gaming streams.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what data and research he has on the player base of people playing (a) loot boxes, (b) social casinos, (c) twitch gaming and (d) e-sports betting.
Answered by John Whittingdale
We continue to work with the video games industry, other government departments, and relevant regulatory bodies to ensure games are enjoyed safely. We launched a call for evidence in September to understand players’ experiences with loot boxes and to examine evidence of potential harms. This received over 30,000 responses and we have been working to evaluate fully the evidence gathered. The response will be published in the coming months and will set out preferred actions and potential solutions to any issues identified from the evidence.
The government regularly engages with the Gambling Commission and other bodies to discuss emerging trends, including esports betting. Esports betting is regulated with the same protections as any other sports, and operators must abide by the same regulation and license conditions.
Data from the Gambling Commission’s quarterly surveys shows that in the year to December 2020 9% of adults reported they had ever bet on esports with money or items. Further details can be found at: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-and-research/publication/taking-a-more-in-depth-look-at-online-gambling#ref-4 The government does not collect statistics on the player base of people opening loot boxes, playing social casino games or accessing twitch gaming streams.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with his Northern Irish counterpart on the operation of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) in Northern Ireland following the reduction in the maximum stake on FOBTs in Great Britain to £2 in 2019.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Gambling in Northern Ireland is a devolved issue regulated under the Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (NI) Order 1985. I have not discussed the operation of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals following the 2019 stake cut with my Northern Irish counterpart.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the announcement that the Belgium Gambling Commission will be running a gambling awareness campaign during this summer’s UEFA European Football Championship, what plans they have to advertise gambling support services during the tournament.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
All gambling advertising, wherever it appears, is subject to strict controls on content and placement. The Gambling Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising also requires social responsibility messaging throughout the length of all broadcast gambling adverts. This includes the begambleaware.org link, which signposts to a wide range of advice and support related to gambling. Since 2019, the GambleAware-led Bet Regret campaign has encouraged awareness of risky betting behaviours and action to help regain control, as well as signposting to further support. Since June 2020, members of the Betting and Gaming Council have also committed 20% of their advertising on TV and radio to safer gambling messaging.
The government launched the 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 called for evidence on the effectiveness of safer gambling messaging, and we are considering the evidence carefully.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the most significant evidence received by his Department was in support of reducing the maximum stake on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals after an assessment of the 2016 review and prior to the 2018 stake reduction announcement.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The licensing objectives in the Gambling Act 2005 are principles to be applied by the Gambling Commission and other licensing authorities in exercising their functions under the Act. The Commission is required to permit gambling in so far as it thinks it reasonably consistent with pursuit of the licensing objectives: a) preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime, b) ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way, and c) protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
The government’s Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures began with the publication of a call for evidence in autumn 2016, including on whether changes were needed to stake and prize limits on gaming machines. The objective of the Review was to determine what, if any, changes were needed to strike the right balance between socially responsible growth and the protection of consumers and wider communities. The call for evidence was followed by a consultation paper published in October 2017, with the government’s decision to cut stakes on B2 machines in betting shops to £2 announced in the government response to the consultation in May 2018. The stake cut was in due course implemented via statutory instrument in April 2019.
The government gave careful consideration to a wide range of evidence in the course of the Gaming Machines Review and this evidence and government’s analysis and conclusions were set out in the consultation, government response and the accompanying impact assessment, published at
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-proposals-for-changes-to-gaming-machines-and-social-responsibility-measures. Evidence submitted to the call for evidence was also published at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/call-for-evidence-review-of-gaming-machines-and-social-responsibility-measures.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of (a) whether the stake reduction on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals contributed towards achieving the Gambling Act 2005’s licensing objectives and (b) the effect of the time taken between the 2016 review and implementation in 2019 of the stake reduction on the achievement of those licensing objectives.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The licensing objectives in the Gambling Act 2005 are principles to be applied by the Gambling Commission and other licensing authorities in exercising their functions under the Act. The Commission is required to permit gambling in so far as it thinks it reasonably consistent with pursuit of the licensing objectives: a) preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime, b) ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way, and c) protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
The government’s Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures began with the publication of a call for evidence in autumn 2016, including on whether changes were needed to stake and prize limits on gaming machines. The objective of the Review was to determine what, if any, changes were needed to strike the right balance between socially responsible growth and the protection of consumers and wider communities. The call for evidence was followed by a consultation paper published in October 2017, with the government’s decision to cut stakes on B2 machines in betting shops to £2 announced in the government response to the consultation in May 2018. The stake cut was in due course implemented via statutory instrument in April 2019.
The government gave careful consideration to a wide range of evidence in the course of the Gaming Machines Review and this evidence and government’s analysis and conclusions were set out in the consultation, government response and the accompanying impact assessment, published at
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-proposals-for-changes-to-gaming-machines-and-social-responsibility-measures. Evidence submitted to the call for evidence was also published at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/call-for-evidence-review-of-gaming-machines-and-social-responsibility-measures.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to work with the gambling and gaming sector on extending self-exclusion provisions for problem gamblers as part of the gambling review.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The government launched its Review of the Gambling Act 2005 on 8 December with the publication of a Call for Evidence. The Review’s objectives include examining whether changes are needed to the system of gambling regulation to reflect changes to the gambling landscape, to make sure customers are suitably protected wherever they are gambling, and to ensure that there is an equitable approach to the regulation of the online and the land based industries.
The Gambling Commission requires gambling operators to have effective procedures in place for customers who choose to self-exclude. More information is available at: https://gamblingcommission.gov.uk/PDF/LCCP/Licence-conditions-and-codes-of-practice.pdf (Section 3.5). In March 2020, the Commission made it mandatory for online operators to participate in GAMSTOP, the national online self-exclusion scheme, which allows customers to self-exclude from all licensed online gambling at once.
The government recognises the value of a responsible industry which protects players, provides employment and pays taxes. It does not hold information on the number of people employed in high street betting shops in Shropshire.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the welfare of greyhounds that have finished their racing career.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
In January 2019 the Government announced an increased funding commitment from bookmakers to support the Greyhound Board of Great Britain’s (GBGB) efforts to improve welfare. In 2019/20 the British Greyhound Racing Fund collected a total of £8.87m from bookmakers, up from £6.95m in the previous 12 months. The Government continues to encourage any remaining bookmakers that have not signed up to the voluntary arrangements to do so and welcomes the 22 March 2021 announcement by the Betting and Gaming Council that four more bookmakers have agreed to begin contributing to Fund. Working with the GBGB, each year the Fund contributes half its revenue to the welfare of racing greyhounds.
GBGB has committed to ensure that, wherever possible, every greyhound leaving GBGB racing should be rehomed. They have also introduced the Greyhound Retirement Scheme. The scheme attaches a £400 bond to each greyhound at the point of registration, paid for jointly by the owner and GBGB, in order to pay for rehoming costs at the end of a dog’s racing life.
Once a greyhound’s racing career is over, these dogs may be exported to Pakistan if the appropriate animal health and welfare certification requirements are met. We consider that completion of this process is sufficiently rigorous and costly to prevent the wide scale exportation of dogs from the UK. Since the beginning of 2019 we have only one record of an application for a certificate to export a greyhound to Pakistan. However, we are unable to account for any movements to Pakistan that may have transited through a third country.
If we find evidence that there is a widespread problem, we can then consider what further steps may be necessary. GBGB is currently investigating whether any licensed GBGB member has knowingly supplied any greyhound directly to Pakistan.