House of Lords debates ad ban on gambling
Government dismisses total ban, citing lack of “conclusive” evidence of problem gambling links
House of Lords peers yesterday discussed whether the government should look to ban gambling advertising to counter the negative effects on vulnerable and younger people.
Conservative peer Lord Robathan called for a complete ban, arguing that advertising is “feeding gambling addiction” among children.
However, parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Ashton, dismissed this assertion saying there was no “clear” evidence of a relationship between child gambling and gambling advertising.
Ashton cited the recent commissioning of research into the influence and extent of online advertising by GambleAware, stating that the government would only take action if there were “clear lessons” to be learned from this research.
Peers welcomed the “significant” introduction of a ‘whistle-to-whistle’ advertising ban during live sport and the strengthening of controls on gambling ads as evidence of the industry’s commitment to addressing this issue.
Questions were also raised about the links between so-called loot boxes in video games and gambling with labour peer Lord Hunt asking the government to take a more “proactive” approach in addressing this issue. Lord Ashton reassured peers that the government was “taking account” of this new issue and that it is “seeking to work with the video games industry” to raise awareness of the problem.
Ashton confirmed the government was working with the NHS to assess if the current network of problem gambling treatment centres needs to be expanded.
Addressing the issue of the national lottery, Ashton also said the government was re-considering whether to allow 16 and 17-year olds to participate in the National Lottery as part of the competition for the fourth national lottery licence.