Fixed Odds Betting Terminals

Part of Opposition Day — [16th Allotted Day] — Housing – in the House of Commons at 4:48 pm on 8 January 2014.

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Photo of Helen Grant Helen Grant The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 4:48, 8 January 2014

I think that I have been pretty generous so far. I want to make a little progress and then I will take more interventions.

On player protection, I have been consistently clear that the onus is on the betting industry immediately to develop and implement harm mitigation measures, and to make data available for independent research. I met the chief executives of the five largest UK bookmakers in December, and I challenged them to develop a plan by the end of January to link players with play in a way that allows us better to understand player behaviour and to assess the effectiveness of harm mitigation measures. That could include much more extensive use of card-based play on gaming machines to track player behaviour more systematically. I am not prepared, however, to delay taking action while we await research outcomes or industry plans to be developed. For that reason, I have challenged the industry to press ahead with its social responsibility code and to implement precautionary player protection measures at the earliest possible opportunity.