Online Gambling — House of Lords, 2017-11-23
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Peter Gummer (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the noble Lord, Lord Browne of Belmont, and congratulate him on securing this very important debate. I must first, as always in these situations, declare the interest that one of my children is head of policy for Google in the UK and Northern Ireland Public concern with gambling suggests that we are at a very important crossroads. On the one hand, it is perfectly clear that the people running gambling are thriving. Last week, we read that the highest-paid woman in the United Kingdom—indeed, the highest-paid boss in the country—is the head of a gambling firm with a 2016 pay packet of £217 million. The Daily Mail reported that, according to the Sunday Times rich list, the wealth of the British gambling industry’s tycoons, who include five billionaires and 15 multimillionaires, increased by nearly 20% last year to a total of £19 billion. On the other hand, as the noble Lord has pointed out, from a social standpoint more than 2 million people in the UK are either problem gamblers or at risk of gambling addiction I feel that constructive debate and sensible lawmaking depend to a significant degree on the quality of the information and research on which they are based. Particularly since the debate that I introduced on 14 September on the effects on children of advertising gambling, I have continually been asked: is the research from the Gambling Commission and from GambleAware, on which arguments and legislation may ultimately be based, genuinely independent of the gambling industry, which funds it, particularly as several of their trustees were recently chief executives of the very companies that provide the money The questions about problem and online gambling, to which we need answers, are becoming more and more pressing. For example, do we feel confident that we have well-grounded, long-term trend analysis of problem gamblers in the UK and the causes of their addiction? Is traditional and online advertising encouraging young people to believe that without gambling online they cannot enjoy a fulfilling social life? How far is gambling undermining family life? What are the lessons to be learned from other countries such as Sweden and Australia, where legislation is more advanced, as the noble Lord has just pointed out? Personally, I advocate increasing the levy on gambling industry profits—I would also make it statutory—so that we can fund research into these and other questions However, in these days of increased public cynicism, it is not enough actually to be independent of the industry; it is also essential to be seen to be independent and to be transparently so. For my own part, I believe that these organisations are independent, but will the Minister consider increasing the levy on the industry and confirm that he is satisfied with the independence of GambleAware, the Gambling Commission and similar organisations and, most importantly, the subjects they choose to research? Does he believe that there should be any additional protections or compliance procedures? Perhaps, when the final gambling review is published, the Government would also consider adding a profile of the organisations they have used for their research and say why they feel confident that the methodology and conclusions are entirely independent and can be relied upon For a number of years I was chairman of Action on Addiction. We believed that the longer we could delay young people experimenting, even with cigarettes and alcohol, the less likely they were to become addicted in later life. Young people who experiment with gambling today, particularly online and therefore often secretly, are in danger of becoming the problem gamblers of tomorrow. A 30% rise in the number of problem gamblers in the UK in the last three years suggests to me that we may—I repeat "may"—be seeing the beginning of a worrying trend In my view, some firms are now offering online gambling games specifically designed to appeal to children. Recent press reports refer to an operator offering a Peter Pan game with 20p bets, and Unicorn Bliss has a minimum bet of just 1p. Games such as Goldilocks and the Wild Bears can also be played for free. At noon today I checked: all these sites were up and running and open for business Interestingly, the Gambling Commission found that 6% of 11 to 15 year-olds have gambled online using their parents’ account. But on and offline is a blur to the young. They watch programmes when they choose on whichever device they choose. A TV watershed protecting the young is becoming less and less relevant, although the average age at which children watch TV after 9 pm, and unsupervised, is lower than 12 The government review states: "Problem gambling has remained statistically stable despite the rise in advertising … Children’s participation in gambling and their levels of problem gambling have declined since 2007" Can it really be the case that, despite a 63% increase in advertising since 2012—up to a staggering £312 million—and the proliferation of online gambling opportunities, over the last 10 years there has been no increase in problem gambling This is too important to get wrong. There is much debate about the health warnings on gambling advertising, and there is a plan in the review to launch advertising campaigns designed to, "raise public awareness of risks associated with gambling" I wish to make three points. First, this educational campaign is being outspent by the gambling industry 50 times over. Secondly, the important issue for advertising such as this is the tone of voice, as well as the content. Thirdly, my professional communications experience suggests that this campaign may heighten young people’s interest in gambling, which in turn could lead to further experimentation. My experience as a father and a grandfather is that, the more society tells a young person not to do something, or that it is excessively risky, the more likely they are to do it. I ask the Minister to protect the young of today and thereby reduce the number of problem gamblers for tomorrow by urgently considering severely curtailing or even banning all gambling advertising and promotion on and offline I want to make a specific point about the multi-operator self-exclusion scheme—MOSES—which, by the way, I enthusiastically support. It is a very positive step. As I understand it, around 100 online gambling operators are licensed by the Gambling Commission, and they are covered by the multi-operator scheme. However, I have also seen that there are 30,000 sites worldwide. Are the Government reviewing all software and artificial intelligence options, such as gamban, to exclude all these sites This is such an important debate, and this issue is moving up the national agenda. If, based on transparent and independent research which we could all accept as correct, we could reduce gambling advertising offline and online, particularly when targeted at the young, and help problem gamblers manage their addiction with the assistance of MOSES and of new software and artificial intelligence solutions, we would, as a result, have a healthier and safer society.