Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ban gambling adverts in the UK.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is reviewing the Gambling Act to make sure it is fit for the digital age. As part of the broad scope of this review, we called for evidence on the potential benefits or harms caused by allowing licensed gambling operators to advertise and to make promotional offers. The call for evidence received approximately 16,000 submissions from a broad range of interested organisations and individuals. We are considering the evidence carefully and will publish a White Paper outlining conclusions and any proposals for reform in the coming months.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether Ministers in her Department have met officials at the Gambling Commission in respect of the Review of the Regulation of BetIndex Limited.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The first piece of correspondence from the Gambling Commission alerting DCMS to the BetIndex Limited case was an email to officials on the 10th of March 2021.
Since then ministers and officials have had a number of meetings with the Gambling Commission on the case, the independent review, and lessons learnt. Records of ministerial meetings are published quarterly and are available on gov.uk.
Officials at the Advertising Standards Authority and DCMS have discussed the Betindex case periodically since the company’s collapse in March 2021, but there has been no written correspondence on it.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has received correspondence from the Advertising Standards Authority in respect of the activities of BetIndex Limited.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The first piece of correspondence from the Gambling Commission alerting DCMS to the BetIndex Limited case was an email to officials on the 10th of March 2021.
Since then ministers and officials have had a number of meetings with the Gambling Commission on the case, the independent review, and lessons learnt. Records of ministerial meetings are published quarterly and are available on gov.uk.
Officials at the Advertising Standards Authority and DCMS have discussed the Betindex case periodically since the company’s collapse in March 2021, but there has been no written correspondence on it.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many meetings she has attended on the review of the regulation of BetIndex Limited.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The first piece of correspondence from the Gambling Commission alerting DCMS to the BetIndex Limited case was an email to officials on the 10th of March 2021.
Since then ministers and officials have had a number of meetings with the Gambling Commission on the case, the independent review, and lessons learnt. Records of ministerial meetings are published quarterly and are available on gov.uk.
Officials at the Advertising Standards Authority and DCMS have discussed the Betindex case periodically since the company’s collapse in March 2021, but there has been no written correspondence on it.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when her Department first received correspondence from the Gambling Commission on its investigation into Football Index.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The first piece of correspondence from the Gambling Commission alerting DCMS to the BetIndex Limited case was an email to officials on the 10th of March 2021.
Since then ministers and officials have had a number of meetings with the Gambling Commission on the case, the independent review, and lessons learnt. Records of ministerial meetings are published quarterly and are available on gov.uk.
Officials at the Advertising Standards Authority and DCMS have discussed the Betindex case periodically since the company’s collapse in March 2021, but there has been no written correspondence on it.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to require schools to provide education on the harms of gambling.
Answered by Robin Walker
We have made relationships education compulsory for all primary schools, relationships and sex education compulsory for all secondary school pupils and health education compulsory for pupils in all state-funded schools. Health education includes teaching pupils about the risks associated with gambling and the statutory guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
The subjects will support all young people in terms of managing risk and making informed decisions, as well as in key aspects such as mental wellbeing and online behaviour. For example, under the topic of internet safety and harms, the guidance sets out that young people should be taught about the risks related to online gambling, including the accumulation of debt, how advertising and information is targeted at them and how to be a discerning consumer of information online.
To support schools to deliver this content, the department has produced teacher training modules. The module on internet safety and harms includes teaching pupils about the risks associated with gambling. A link to the training modules is available on GOV.UK and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.
Many schools choose to draw on the work of subject associations when selecting resources to deliver these topics. The PSHE Association worked with GambleAware to develop free resources to improve delivery of school-based preventative gambling education.
Other curriculum subjects, such as citizenship, mathematics and computing can also address online gambling and its dangers. This includes developing young people’s financial literacy and highlighting the dangers of online gambling whilst using digital platforms, such as gambling opportunities introduced within computer games and apps.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she plans to take to prevent gambling companies from targeting vulnerable communities.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
All gambling operators providing gambling facilities to customers in Great Britain must be licensed by the Gambling Commission and comply with strict licence conditions and codes of practice including measures to protect children and vulnerable people. These require operators to put in place robust measures for age verification to ensure children cannot gamble online, an obligation to monitor data and intervene when customers show signs of harm, and a prohibition on operators advertising and marketing to those who have self-excluded.
The Government and the Gambling Commission have also significantly raised requirements around age verification, banned gambling on credit cards, made online slots safer with a new game design code, mandated integration with Gamstop (the one-stop online self exclusion scheme) and introduced new rules on VIP schemes.
We are also reviewing the Gambling Act to ensure it is fit for the digital age. A core objective of the Review is to ensure effective protections are in place for the further protection of vulnerable groups. We are considering the evidence carefully and will publish a white paper outlining any conclusions and proposals for reform in due course.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will bring forward legislative proposals in the Online Safety Bill to end the use of online gambling advertising.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Online Harms Bill will bring in a regulatory framework for user-to-user services, such as social media and video sharing sites, and search services, such as search engines. Gambling firms are already subject to the specific gambling regulatory regime set out in the 2005 Gambling Act. We are currently reviewing that Act with a focus on ensuring we have the right protections in place to prevent gambling related harm.
All online gambling operators must already be licensed by the Commission and comply with the strict licence conditions including measures to protect children and vulnerable people. Importantly, this includes a range of controls to ensure that all advertising and marketing, including offers, are provided in a socially responsible way. A number of types of gambling operators are similarly prohibited from providing any form of credit. Those who are able to are subject to the stringent restrictions set out in the Gambling Commission’s Social Responsibility Codes.
As part of the Act Review’s broad scope, we are looking closely at the effectiveness of the existing measures. We are considering the evidence carefully and will publish a white paper outlining any conclusions and proposals for reform in the coming months.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will bring forward legislative proposals as part of the Online Harms Bill to tackle online gambling firms making offers to their site users that are harmful, including free loans.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Online Harms Bill will bring in a regulatory framework for user-to-user services, such as social media and video sharing sites, and search services, such as search engines. Gambling firms are already subject to the specific gambling regulatory regime set out in the 2005 Gambling Act. We are currently reviewing that Act with a focus on ensuring we have the right protections in place to prevent gambling related harm.
All online gambling operators must already be licensed by the Commission and comply with the strict licence conditions including measures to protect children and vulnerable people. Importantly, this includes a range of controls to ensure that all advertising and marketing, including offers, are provided in a socially responsible way. A number of types of gambling operators are similarly prohibited from providing any form of credit. Those who are able to are subject to the stringent restrictions set out in the Gambling Commission’s Social Responsibility Codes.
As part of the Act Review’s broad scope, we are looking closely at the effectiveness of the existing measures. We are considering the evidence carefully and will publish a white paper outlining any conclusions and proposals for reform in the coming months.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans the Government has to regulate gambling advertising on (a) television, (b) online and (c) sports shirt sponsorship.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
All gambling advertising, wherever it appears, is already subject to strict controls on content and placement. Gambling operators and their affiliates must abide by the advertising codes issued by the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) and the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP). Breaches of the code can result in the Gambling Commission taking enforcement action. The CAP has recently consulted on strengthening the advertising codes for gambling for the greater protection of children and vulnerable adults. New measures to protect vulnerable adults are already in force and a full consultation outcome, including new protections for children, is expected shortly.
In addition, the gambling industry has its own gambling advertising code – The Gambling Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising which includes additional requirements, for example, a 9pm television advertising watershed for most forms of gambling and ensuring advertising is targeted only at those over 25 years old on social media.
As with advertising, sponsorship arrangements must be socially responsible and must never be targeted at children. If a gambling sponsorship is socially irresponsible or otherwise violates licence conditions, the Gambling Commission can take action against both the operator and the partner organisation.
The Government is reviewing the Gambling Act 2005 to ensure it remains fit for the digital age. As part of its broad scope, the review called for evidence on the benefits or harms of allowing operators to advertise and engage in sponsorship arrangements. We are considering the evidence carefully and will publish a White Paper outlining conclusions and next steps in due course. We are also looking more broadly at how online advertising is regulated through the Online Advertising Programme, which will be launching a public consultation in the coming months.