Clause 14 - Lottery
Gambling Bill
3:00 pm
Mr Richard Caborn (Minister of State (Sport and Tourism), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; Sheffield Central, Labour)
The amendments are intended to simplify the definition of ''lottery'' in the context of the arrangements that need to be included. They would remove the distinction between a simple and a complex lottery. The distinction is made in the clause for a particular reason. Lotteries may involve a group of persons paying to enter and a prize being allocated among all those persons. Those lotteries are covered by the simple lottery definition in subsection (2). Lotteries may, however, also involve a number of processes. For example, a group of people may pay to enter and after the first draw there may be a further competition, or some further competitions, to determine the ultimate winner. Those further competitions may not rely wholly on chance. They could, for example, be tie-breakers. Such lotteries are caught by the complex lottery definition in subsection (3).
Deleting subsection (3) would therefore exclude from the definition of ''lottery'' those arrangements in which there is a draw based on chance and a subsequent competition. We want to ensure that such arrangements are regulated as lotteries under the Bill; I am sure that the hon. Gentleman agrees with that. If we do not do that, we risk commercial enterprises exploiting that loophole. With that explanation, I ask him to withdraw the amendment.