Clause 61 - Nature of licence
Gambling Bill
4:00 pm
Mr Richard Caborn (Minister of State (Sport and Tourism), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; Sheffield Central, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman is right about category A machines, which have the high pay-outs. The operators run around 10 per cent. and they determine what the pay-outs will be and whether they want more, or fewer, pay-outs from their machine. They must have the input before the output. If the output were one big prize, they would want a lot more input. That is proven not just for category A machines, but for category B machines—with the £2,000 prize—because the pay-out is limited and therefore there are more pay-outs. That is just part of the marketplace. It is not a Government statistic; it is a reality of operation. However, the hon. Gentleman will probably know that from speaking to some of the operators.
On amendment No. 5, the Bill states that category A machines will be permitted in regional casinos only, which will offer a mixture of gambling and other leisure activities. Of course we need to make sure that category A machines are carefully regulated in the public interest. This category will be subject to controls over things such as speed of play and on-screen information and to stringent standards of supply, maintenance and, for the first time in British law, manufacture. However, not permitting category A machines would undermine the modernising principles of the Bill and deny customer choice. There is a market for machine gambling, subject to the tight controls that we are placing on the machines.
If category A machines could not be offered as part of the British gambling package and experience, it is likely that casino operators—be they British or from overseas—would be far less inclined to make the substantial investment necessary to set up regional casinos. In turn, that would mean that the potentially significant benefits from regeneration, to which several hon. Members referred, and job creation would be lost. I therefore ask the hon. Gentleman to withdraw his amendment.