Clause 48 - Employment to provide facilities for gambling
Gambling Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
Thank you, Mr. Pike.
The issue on category D machines is very simple. The Government propose to remove them from a whole swathe of premises. I am told that there are currently permits for 6,000 premises such as cafes and fish and chip shops. Although the Government will remove category D machines from them, it will still allow them in motorway service stations. It is difficult to understand why that is the case.
The argument is about supervision, but there is as little supervision in motorway service stations as in the local cafe or fish and chip shop. The Government should explain why they have seen fit to go down that road, given that there does not seem to be much evidence to support the idea that category D machines are in any way damaging to young people. Recently, the Secretary of State wrote a letter to the hon. Member for somewhere.