rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 21 February be approved.

My Lords, I shall speak also to the mandatory and default conditions order. These two important statutory instruments are the first among a number of statutory instruments that the Government are publishing in preparation for implementation of the Gambling Act 2005 on 1 September this year.

The Act heralds a new relationship between society and the gambling industry. The legislation is based on three key principles, which are: first, to prevent gambling from becoming a source of crime and disorder; secondly, to ensure that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way; and, thirdly, to protect children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

The Act places the protection of children and the problem of gambling at the heart of the system of regulation for the very first time. The industry will enjoy certain freedoms, but that is balanced by new responsibilities to safeguard customers, which will be backed by the force of the law with the severest penalties.

For the first time, we have put in place a single regulator for the whole of the gambling industry. The Gambling Commission is open for business and is taking applications for operating licences. The role of the Gambling Commission is to regulate the industry and to provide a centre of knowledge and advice.

Local people will be more involved in the decisions relating to the licensing of gambling premises within their communities and these statutory instruments deal with two aspects of premises licensing administered by licensing authorities: the mandatory and default conditions that will be attached to premises licences and an exemption to allow children and young people into the areas where betting facilities are provided on tracks and sporting venues on days when a sporting event is taking place.

The exclusion of children from tracks order extends an exemption that is already in place for horse racetracks and dog racetracks. The exemption will be extended to all other sporting venues, which means that children and young people will be allowed into areas where betting facilities are provided on a day when a sporting event is taking place.

This is a practical measure, which reflects the fact that gambling facilities are now widely available at sporting tracks and events. It would be very difficult, and, in the Government's view, unnecessary, for the track and venue operators to ensure that children and young people did not enter the area where betting was taking place. Indeed, it would not be fair to expect sporting venues to do that when horse racetracks and dog racing tracks are not obliged to do so. Young people go to these venues to watch the sport, not to gamble. We are also satisfied that sufficient safeguards are in place to prevent children and young people placing bets while they are at tracks and sporting venues.

The mandatory and default conditions allow three kinds of conditions to be attached to a gambling premises licence. These are mandatory, default and individual conditions. The mandatory conditions are imposed by the Secretary of State in these regulations. Some apply to all types of gambling premises, such as the requirement to display in a prominent place on the premises the summary of the terms and conditions of the licence; others are specific to a particular type of premises, such as the requirement for casinos not to offer more than 40 separate player positions at automated gaming tables. These conditions are compulsory and the licensing authority cannot change them.

Default conditions are also imposed by the Secretary of State in these regulations, but licensing authorities may adjust them to reflect local circumstances if they consider it necessary. The only default conditions that we have included at this stage relate to the hours during which the premises are licensed for the provision of gambling. We have tried to standardise these hours as far as possible. Operators might choose not to open for the whole time; equally, they may apply to the licensing authority for longer hours. Licensing authorities can adjust the hours down, as well as up, if they deem it appropriate.

The regulations do not deal with individual conditions, as these are imposed by the licensing authority to reflect local circumstances.

It may appear at first sight that we are introducing a lot of conditions, but we consider these to be the absolute minimum standards consistent with the licensing objectives of the Gambling Act. Many of them simply replicate requirements that are already in place under existing legislation; for example, the need to separate out and properly supervise any over-18 areas which contain category C machines in bingo halls and family entertainment centres and on tracks. Other requirements specify that there must be non-gaming areas in casinos, and supervision of over-18 areas must be ensured.

All the conditions were the subject of extensive informal and formal consultation with the gambling industry, licensing authorities and community groups. They are designed to ensure that the three licensing objectives, which I enumerated at the beginning of this short presentation, are properly reflected in the way that each type of gambling premises is managed.

Licensing authorities will be responsible for ensuring that gambling operators comply with these premises licence conditions. They will do this by checking the plan of the premises which is submitted with the licence application and by visits to the premises.

This is a balanced and effective package of conditions, which we believe will ensure that the licensing objectives are met. The conditions will be straightforward for licensing authorities to monitor and will not place an unreasonable burden on the industry, while achieving the three principles behind the Gambling Act 2005. I beg to move.

Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 21 February be approved. 10th Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Lord Davies of Oldham.)

My Lords, we on these Benches are happy to give broad support to the two orders. The order dealing with the exclusion of children from track areas is a common-sense measure, reflecting the reality of children attending track events, while not engaging in gambling activities from which they remain, rightly, prohibited. We fully support it.

The order dealing with mandatory and default conditions covers a much broader canvas, parts of which are specialist and technical in nature. It refers to the original proposal to create a new generation of casinos—one regional, eight large and eight small. The order setting out the specific geographical locations was rejected by your Lordships' House on 28 March. Had the Government not been so obstinate and produced separate orders, there is little doubt that the large and the small package would have been approved. There is now considerable uncertainty about the Government's intentions. Could the Minister indicate whether and when any new orders are likely? Indeed, it is somewhat ironic that we are debating this order today without knowing whether there will be any new casinos at all.

In addition, since the order was debated in another place on 26 March, the British Casino Association has obtained the High Court's permission for a judicial review on the possible competitive disadvantages to existing casinos, as compared with the new generation of casinos, which the Government intended. Am I correct in assuming that the Government now have to await the outcome of the judicial review before proceeding? Additionally, as we understand it, there are nine ongoing consultations on many elements of the Gambling Act 2005. Does that mean that we will be asked to scrutinise many more orders prior to the Act coming into force on 1 September 2007? Is there an up-to-date implementation plan that could be placed in the Library? The existing one on the DCMS website appears somewhat out of date.

Having said all that, and having raised certain points, we confirm our broad support for the order, and I look forward to the Minister's response.

My Lords, we on these Benches also broadly support the orders. On the matter of the tracks and allowing children, will the Minister tell the House the sort of tracks where he envisages gambling taking place, which are not horse or dog-racing tracks? It is probably my ignorance, but I cannot think of a large number of those.

As has been said, it is interesting that the Secretary of State is going ahead with these regulations when the order establishing the very casinos that this order purports to regulate has been annulled by this House.

There is an anomaly on which I should be grateful for the Minister's views that has already been commented on by the noble Lord, Lord Lee. Under the 1968 Act, casinos are allowed only 20 gaming machines and no sports betting, but the casinos under the 2005 Act will be allowed to have 80 to 150 gaming machines and will be allowed to take sports bets. As the noble Lord commented, this is a basis for a challenge to the Government under judicial review.

In another place on 9 November 2004, the Minister, when discussing different types of casino, said:

"I do not believe that that judgment is in conflict with competition law and I am advised that it is not"—[Official Report, Commons Standing Committee B, 9/11/04; col. 41.]

Will the Minister explain why a judicial review is due to start on 17 May disputing the different treatment in the 1968 and 2005 Acts? The 2005 Act specifies that casinos must have a recreational area. Will the Minister clarify whether playing non-casino games, such as bridge, backgammon, and so on, where there is no house involvement, will be permitted in the recreational area of a casino? If it is not permitted on the grounds that the game might be played for money, how does the noble Lord envisage casinos knowing that gambling is taking place, and will he say how it could be controlled?

My Lords, are the arrangements intended to include point-to-point racing, trotting tracks, what I think are generally called "flapping tracks"—unlicensed dog tracks—and, in my own district, duck racing?

My Lords, I am grateful to noble Lords who have spoken and asked questions. I am not quite so grateful to the noble Lord, Lord James, because I cannot answer all his questions, although I raised the question of point-to-point racing myself. I had not got around to duck racing. I shall seek confirmation before I give the noble Lord a categorical reply.

I am obviously grateful that noble Lords welcome the orders, because they give effect to the Gambling Act. As the noble Lord, Lord Lee, was kind enough to indicate, and I emphasise, we might have other orders before us. I fear, both for the noble Lord's sake and my own, that that is so and that we have further work to do before the Act is fully operative. I assure him that we now have an updated version of the implementation plan in the Library.

The judicial review does not hold up our progress. We are confident of our case and expect to win, but recognise that British casinos have the right to make this application. We will respond to it in due course, confident that the judgment will be in favour of our position. It does not currently inhibit work on the Act as such. The element of inhibition in this process is obvious enough: a vote of this House, not the other place. This House will now know, which it did not when it expressed its opinion on that fateful day, the judgment of the elected House, which became known later.

Of course the Government regret the loss of that vote; it occasioned a great deal of disappointment. That is at least paralleled, if not exceeded, by that of those local authorities that sought the new casinos as a significant aid to regeneration, with thousands of new jobs in deprived communities. That is why we are concerned to reach a judgment on the next step, in complex and difficult circumstances. The House will recognise that we are bound by the 2005 Act. If the House is eager that the Government reach a judgment soon, I say that if it were easy to make, it would already have been formed. There are many issues to consider, but we are all too well aware of our obligation, particularly to the local authorities that made the applications, to reach a judgment as rapidly as we can on how to proceed.

The noble Lord, Lord Howard, raised a question which also perplexed me. The word "tracks" throws us all. "Tracks" is a generic term for sporting venues, and we are extending to sporting venues that which already obtains for horse and dog-racing tracks. The noble Lord also interested me when he said that he could not think what these venues might be. I go to football matches, and I have never seen a betting stall or booth, but they exist in many grounds. Perhaps I go to the wrong grounds, or perhaps I am congenitally blind to those facilities, but they are there. It will be recognised that, because of concern about the relationship between gambling and individual cricket events—individual scores by batsmen or prowess by bowlers can be bet upon—the cricket authorities have been concerned that there should be proper regulation. That is proof that betting goes on at cricket grounds.

The noble Lord, Lord James, mentioned a whole swathe of other events. Separate provisions will apply to point-to-point racing. Temporary use notices will be applied to it because, interestingly, its venues do not have the same permanence as formal racecourses.

The noble Lord, Lord Howard, was kind enough to warn me that he might ask his other question. It had not crossed my mind that the parliamentary bridge club might relocate its activities to the local casino, but I agree that people might go to the recreational areas of a casino and engage in communal pursuits in which there might be some wagering. The regulations draw a very clear, sharp and impermeable line between the areas where gambling takes place and the recreational areas because the recreational areas can offer access to children. It is a rigid division therefore the parliamentary bridge club, or any other group, can go and play bridge in those recreational areas but will not be allowed to wager. The noble Lord, Lord Howard, asked how that will be prevented. The parliamentary bridge society is the most law-abiding body that I can think of, so the issue would not arise, but in the case of any other group that sought to play cards and gamble, the point is that licences are offered to premises on the basis that there is adequate supervision of a very important dividing line. I assure the noble Lord that any attempt in those areas to engage in games which involve monetary rewards is forbidden. We would expect those areas to be monitored by the people operating the premises. If they did not do so, their licence would be in jeopardy.

On Question, Motion agreed to.