Clause 149 - Interested party
Gambling Bill
3:30 pm
Mr Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
Amendment No. 330 would add to clause 149. Amendment No. 331, which is consequential to amendment No. 330, is similar but refers to clause 327. We return to the discussion that we had at the very beginning of the Committee's deliberations on social responsibility and well-being, as well as the input of local communities, particularly those sections of it that have great concerns about problem gambling and the social impact of gambling, betting and gaming.
The amendments are partly an attempt to help the Government. It seems, although we have not yet had the debate, that if the Government are moving down the road of limitations—and they have talked about limitations on regional casinos—there has to be a good reason to justify that in our courts, in the European Court of Human Rights and in the European Court of Justice. The amendments are an attempt to focus on the social well-being and responsibility aspects of what we are doing, and to put them in the Bill. It might be helpful for the Government if they embraced the idea; it might help them in forthcoming discussions.