A panel of anti-gambling researchers urged members of the Health and Social Care Committee to tighten regulations on gambling advertising and land-based machines on 2 April, but MPs Joe Robertson and Gregory Stafford were not convinced by their pleas.
Anti-gambling researchers were accused of “over-egging the pudding” as they tried to convince MPs that both Cat D and B3 machines need further regulation.
Speaking to the Health and Social Care Committee on 2 April, Professor Sam Chamberlain of the University of Southampton, Professor Heather Wardle of the University of Glasgow, and Lucy Hubber, Director of Public Health Nottingham stressed the need for stronger protections on land-based slot machines, which they said remain under-regulated compared to online gambling.
“I think we need to have much more severe restrictions and greater protections at a population level, particularly for children and young people, but also for those who are harmed and to not normalise this behaviour,” she told the committee. “Let’s not forget we are one of the few jurisdictions in the whole world that legally allows our children to gamble on electronic gambling machines. There is no age restrictions for these category D machines.”
She also argued that land-based machines have become more like online games, stating that “the games are much more intensive” than they used to be on B3 machines. MP Gregory Stafford, however, was not convinced by Wardle’s assertions, particularly on the danger posed to children. He pointed to the need for parental responsibility, rather than further regulation, as the solution.
“Why would you [parents] not just say to children, ‘you are not playing this game’ until you are more responsible?” Stafford said. “It seems to me we are over-egging the pudding here.”
Researchers Wardle and Hubber also raised concerns about the normalisation of gambling and outlined a strategy that would prioritise decreasing gambling within the population rather than only targeting those who experience gambling harms. This raised the eyebrows of MP Joe Robertson, who echoed Gambling Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes’ sentiment that – despite what anti-gambling campaigners think – gambling is normal.
“I think the problem I’m identifying is that human beings are naturally risk-taking. Our entire banking system, our entire economic system is based on gambling. The chancellor has to make decisions on borrowing based gambling predictions – running risks,” he concluded “We need to be able to target a particular activity within gambling rather than gambling itself.”
The panel of anti-gambling researchers was followed by a panel including the Commission’s Tim Miller, who noted that the regulator is currently seeing “much better levels of compliance from the industry”.
Researchers flattened like a pancake
Gregory Stafford MP said… “Why would you [parents] not just say to children, ‘you are not playing this game’ until you are more responsible? It seems to me we are over-egging the pudding here…
