Clause 43 - Invitation to gamble
Gambling Bill
10:30 am
Mr Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
Amendment No. 144, and the consequential amendment No. 146 to clause 44, seek to strengthen the Bill's wording. The offence in clause 43 seems to be an absolute offence except to the extent that it is limited in subsection (3), which refers to ''intentionally'' bringing to the attention of a child information regarding gambling.
We want to provide an offence that protects those innocent members of the gambling industry who have no intention of inviting a child or young person to gamble. There should be a defence where the inviter uses due care or was unaware, and was not reckless about whether the information had gone to a child or young person. The meaning of ''intentionally'' could be explained further in the code of practice, if necessary.
Amendment No. 145 would make the wording more specific and clear. The clause leaves open to interpretation the phrase ''with a view to''. That could mean allowing for the possibility of, or even specifically encouraging. The amendment's purpose is to avoid any unnecessary ambiguity by specifying that the purpose of bringing information to the attention of a child or young person must have been to encourage them to gamble.