Gerry Sutcliffe: I refer the House to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am also a non-paid, independent trustee of the Responsible Gambling Trust. The trust was set up under the previous Labour Government, who wanted the gambling industry to contribute to a voluntary levy towards research, education and treatment. As the hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Dame Angela...
Gerry Sutcliffe: ...perceived proliferation of the main bookmakers on the high street. As he said, the reason is that they used to be on side streets, but they have now moved to the high streets. The problem for the gambling companies is that they are associated with payday loan companies and others on the high street that are causing great concern, especially among our local government colleagues. That is...
Gerry Sutcliffe: ...says, at that time it was difficult to bring together various bodies to fund research, education and treatment for problem gamblers. The NHS does not fund such programmes, and the Responsible Gambling Trust provided the best possible deal at the time. What I find regrettable is that the Campaign for Fairer Gambling should attack the integrity of that individual body of research on...
Gerry Sutcliffe: I am pleased that the Minister has acknowledged the work of the Responsible Gambling Trust, which is made up of five independent members and five members from the industry. Will she condemn the attacks that have been made on the Responsible Gambling Trust by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, which is rubbishing any work that comes from the trust?
Gerry Sutcliffe: I did call for FOBTs to be looked at again in 2009, but I also called for the industry to provide £5 million for the Responsible Gambling Trust, which looks at problem gambling. I hope that my hon. Friend admires the work being done by the trust, a charity that has five independent directors and five from the industry.
Gerry Sutcliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions she has had with the Gambling Commission on in-running laying on a betting exchange by those benefiting from the time delay between live and transmitted events; and if she will make a statement.
Gerry Sutcliffe: ...Member for Eltham (Clive Efford) said, more than three years ago. I also pay tribute to the officials in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, because it is important that they work with the Gambling Commission and the sector to understand the nature of the industry, which is very important to this country given the number of jobs it creates, the amount of tax that it pays and the...
Gerry Sutcliffe: I agree with the point my hon. Friend is making, and nobody would want to underestimate the issues relating to problem gambling. The industry has a voluntary levy and it raises more than £5 million. Is it not the case that the health service provides no budget at all to deal with problem gambling, whereas it does make provision to deal with problem drinkers and those dealing with other...
Gerry Sutcliffe: ...it is also the safest of the lot. I understand my hon. Friend’s fears about new clause 1, but because of the way in which the industry is regulated and the way in which it protects people with gambling problems, I do not share his concerns.
Gerry Sutcliffe: .... A large percentage of the companies contribute, but there are a few notable exceptions. One thing that might flow from the clause is that the Minister might be able to support the Responsible Gambling Trust in getting those companies that do not contribute to do so.
Gerry Sutcliffe: ...of new clause 1 and other new clauses in the group. I refer colleagues to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, which states that I am a trustee of the Responsible Gambling Trust. I support new clause 1 for the reasons set out so ably by the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge). The Culture, Media and Sport Committee discovered that the...
Gerry Sutcliffe: ...the Government are going to have to act. The difficulty is that the Government will say, “We will look at it again, we will not tag it to this Bill.” However, we are unlikely to have another gambling Bill this side of a general election, which means it will be another two years before we can get to this money which could be used for sport and other things. I hope that the Minister can...
Gerry Sutcliffe: The hon. Gentleman has prompted me to make a contribution on problem gambling and what to do about it. He quite rightly criticised the industry for being slow to bring forward its contributions to the voluntary levy that was eventually put in place to get them to react to the problems in the sector. I am pleased that many of the larger companies are now contributing, but there are still some...
Gerry Sutcliffe: I did not want to give the impression that nobody should care about the 0.9% because, as the hon. Gentleman says, that is quite a significant figure. The hon. Gentleman relates gambling to alcohol. Alcohol treatment is paid for by the NHS, while gambling addiction is not. Perhaps there is a need for the Government to look at what they can do to help the industry pay for treatment for people...
Gerry Sutcliffe: ...are saying: that mentioning licence condition 15.1 in the Bill would give us consistency. The relationship between sport and betting is vitally important. We can see the competitive nature of the gambling industry and we talked earlier about the increase in advertising as betting operators fight to get customers to bet with them. That is, however, true in sport as well. We can see the...
Gerry Sutcliffe: ...into kicking the ball out—which they may not see as cheating but in fact is cheating—becomes a problem within the sport. The new clause on regular meetings between sports governing bodies and gambling companies is vital. If we cannot reach an arrangement where the sport is in control, and rights can be shared between sports governing bodies and betting companies to see what offer is...
Gerry Sutcliffe: My hon. Friend comes to the nub of the point: a sport is not in control of what people can bet on. While gambling companies can promote bets on any aspect of a sport, the sport has no control over what such a bet can entail.
Gerry Sutcliffe: ...the national lottery is included in the statistics? If she does not have the answer immediately, she might want to write to the Committee, because the relationship between the national lottery and gambling is interesting.
Gerry Sutcliffe: We were told in evidence last week that the Gibraltar gambling commission was considering its options, so it would be helpful if the Minister would outline the procedure if there is a legal challenge to the Bill from one of the offshore operators.
Gerry Sutcliffe: .... We need to think about that. I know that the Bill is a short, sharp measure and the Minister wants to get it through, and I understand why. However, it provides us with an opportunity to discuss gambling issues in detail. We need to re-examine advertising. I take the point about the inappropriateness of the watershed now, because different platforms are available, and people can watch TV...