Clause 43 - Invitation to gamble
Gambling Bill
10:30 am
Mr Liam Byrne (Birmingham, Hodge Hill, Labour)
I shall speak only briefly because my amendments Nos. 306 to 308 are simply probing amendments, and I am as anxious as everyone else to speed the Bill out of the Committee stage as it is well drafted and has been well scrutinised.
I hate to be the first to point out that there are now only 24 shopping days until Christmas. 3G phones may well be one of the most popular products put under the Christmas tree this year. Given the success with which my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer auctioned off 3G licences a few years ago, it is not unreasonable to expect the mobile industry to seek to recover some of its costs, and to make a profit in the not-too-distant future. It is almost certain that online gambling will be one of the most important services that the industry will seek to offer.
This summer, Ladbrokes and 3G offered the first gambling products over a mobile phone platform, offering 38 different ways to make or lose a bit of money. That concerns us because it is already clear how powerful online gambling has become: if one types the words ''online gambling'' into an internet search engine, one gets some 4.3 million pages, and clicking on a few of those links results in every possible enticement and very little support. The support seems to extend only to psychic casino gambling hotlines and online horoscopes. When we consider the child protection measures, the concerns really grow.
The hon. Member for Bath pointed out on Second Reading a survey by NCH earlier this year which showed that only seven out of 37 online gambling systems stopped children under the age of 16 registering. Indeed, children as young as 11 were able to register with online gambling services. The advent of 3G phones puts those risks into every playground and every classroom. Mobile online gambling is itself going to be extremely powerful: analysts project that it will be worth some £4 billion by 2006. When we consider that one in 20 children aged 12 to 15 is already estimated to have a problem with gambling, we must ensure that there is adequate protection against such risks in the Bill.
It is no surprise that 73 per cent. of parents are already concerned about 3G phones; they are right to be concerned about the services that their children will be able to access. These are simple probing amendments designed to check that the mobile phone industry will play its part in protecting children against the risks of online gambling. Amendment No. 303 suggests that the definition of the offence be extended so that those who enable children to gamble online or who collude with an online advertiser are committing an offence. Today, 3G phone operators operate their services in a walled garden; the amendments are designed to ensure that those walls are sufficiently strong to prevent the advent of a casino in every cloakroom.