John Greenway: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much betting tax was paid by (a) gambling operators and (b) the National Lottery in each of the last three years.
John Greenway: ...because this is an extremely important issue affecting many of our constituents—many more than perhaps we give credit for. The Chamber will know that I chaired the Joint Scrutiny Committee on the Gambling Act 2005 and that I am the chairman of the Responsibility in Gambling Trust, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill), whom I congratulate on...
John Greenway: I can help my hon. Friend immediately, as chairman of the Gambling Trust. Operators in Alderney, which is a white-listed jurisdiction, are now contributing substantially to the Gambling Trust. Those contributions would be less likely had we gone down the road of introducing a statutory levy on operators. I congratulate the operators in Alderney on the support that they have given, which helps...
John Greenway: I thank the Secretary of State and my hon. Friend the Member for South-West Surrey (Mr. Hunt) for their support for the Responsibility in Gambling Trust. May I point out to the Secretary of State and the House that funding for the treatment of problem gambling has increased more than tenfold since the trust was formed six years ago? Last year, we launched the gambleaware website. We have a...
John Greenway: ...be said that nobody knew that this was about to happen. It was put out originally in the Budd report, six years ago, and in the Government's response in 2003. The Joint Committee that looked at the Gambling Bill, which I chaired, took evidence from the National Joint Pitch Council—we received a written memorandum from it—and oral evidence from bookmakers. The issue under discussion was...
John Greenway: ...has taken. It was my wish that the publication of two unanimous reports by the Joint Committee, on both the Bill and casinos, would enable both Houses to proceed with the implementation of the Gambling Act 2005 by consensus. If we are to have a policy that will last for 40 years, as the previous one has done, genuine cross-party agreement is critical. It is also important to understand...
John Greenway: ...the casino advisory panel, will be critical if the scheme is to be a success? May I inform her and the House that Manchester city council has already held discussions with the Responsibility in Gambling Trust and GamCare, which we fund? Does she agree that significant contributions to the trust must be made, not just by Manchester, but by all 17 operators of the casinos that she today...
John Greenway: May I remind the House that the scrutiny Committee suggested no limit on the number of regional casinos and said that they would bring about massive regeneration? As for the growth of gambling, does the Minister concede that, although children are banned from gambling premises, the growth of e-gaming and, before long, mobile telephony will cause problems? How does he intend to ensure that...
John Greenway: ...that I consider important. First, the issue of mega-casinos has dogged the Bill from the start. It was the most contentious aspect of the Committee's work. We were introducing a new concept to the gambling environment, on which there are many different views. The Secretary of State and I might have preferred there to be more than one pilot, but it was argued in the Committee that we should...
John Greenway: ...required to be regulated as lotteries and that this Bill requires them to submit themselves to all the new proposals in respect of operating licences and personal licences, to face the wrath of the gambling commission and perhaps to be fined if they get things wrong, while lotteries masquerading as prize competitions are not to face any requirement at all. It is therefore crucial that the...
John Greenway: ...ensure flexibility over time. Hon. Members must realise that we have the opportunity to make primary legislation only every 40 years or so, and the Bill must therefore create the blueprint for the gambling industry for the next 20 to 30 years, or longer. We must also trust the new gambling commission to do its job, and we need fairness for the existing industry. The Minister can use...
John Greenway: ...to the Institute of Sales Promotion, which supports the objective of stronger enforcement against illegal lotteries, an aspect of the Bill that no one else has mentioned. Most of the increase in gambling in Britain today is in unregulated, remote gambling on the internet, which, surveys suggest, includes children and young people under 18. That activity is supported by wholesale...
John Greenway: I thank the Leader of the House for what he said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald) about the draft Gambling Bill. We have put a lot of work into it and I hope that we will have a Second Reading debate soon. May I plead with the Leader of the House, given the length of the overspill, to find Government time for a debate on agriculture—it is a...
John Greenway: I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his earlier remarks, but does he agree with the Joint Scrutiny Committee's recommendation that without a reforming Bill, gambling of doubtful legality would continue to increase? Does the right hon. Gentleman welcome the code of practice jointly adopted last week by his Department and the betting exchanges? That area of gambling is currently not...
John Greenway: What plans she has to promote social responsibility within the gambling industry.
John Greenway: I am grateful for the right hon. Lady's response. The common threads running through the Joint Committee's report are concern about problem gambling and the need to ensure that reform does not lead to any increase in it. When she considers all the report's conclusions, which I appreciate will take some time, will she bear in mind the importance of retaining a crime-free and socially...
John Greenway: .... However, the rest of the industry—all the smaller clubs—do not want that to happen. They would rather protect bingo as it is, but to do that the game has to compete with other forms of gambling. That is why the industry is united in its opposition to the Government's proposal. When I intervened on my hon. Friend the Member for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien), I said that it is annoyed and...
John Greenway: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the interest that he has shown in this matter. Until yesterday, I was the shadow Minister with responsibility for gambling—I had been for some time—and I can tell him that the bingo industry is deeply annoyed and angry at the way in which the Government have treated it over this issue. However, may I clarify what he is saying? He says that he cannot...
John Greenway: ...after six years, three of them in this brief, which I have much enjoyed—although, subject to the approval of the House, I hope to have an important role to play in the scrutiny of the forthcoming gambling Bill. The Secretary of State will know that I have been unswerving in my support for a London bid for the Olympics. I welcome what she said about cross-party support and briefings for...
John Greenway: ...arrangements at present create problems in that regard. The Government have an opportunity to make a change. The slightly contradictory caveat is that there is also no doubt that the rest of the gambling industry deserves some recognition of the fact that the lottery already has a substantial advantage in promotion. On balance, however, we would favour ensuring that the legislation does...