Clause 77 - Credit and inducements
Gambling Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Don Foster (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Culture, Media & Sport; Bath, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment No. 196, in page 34, line 15, leave out subsection (3).
This is rather more complicated, so I hope that the Committee will bear with me for a few minutes.
The clause concerns restrictions on the offering of credit and inducements by operating licence holders. Credit is defined in subsection (4) as
''any form of financial accommodation''
excluding cash, cheques or debit card payments. Subsection (1) provides that the commission may attach to an operating licence a condition about the giving of credit in relation to licensed gambling activities; making offers or inducements designed to induce participation in licensed gambling activities; or being party to arrangements for inducing, permitting or assisting persons to gamble. There is a real range of issues about those opportunities.
For many people, the concern about problem gambling is concern about people who chase their losses. People who chase their losses—particularly, as evidence from elsewhere suggests, in relation to high-stake, high-payout machines—are the very ones likely to go in search of additional money when their funds run out. The amendment seeks to put a barrier in the way of people seeking to obtain additional credit on the premises as one means of reducing the likelihood of problem gambling.