Source · Select Committees · Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Deferred
Paragraph: 78
Commission independent longitudinal research on gambling advertising link to harm, including for women and children
Conclusion
There is an urgent need to better understand the effects of gambling advertising on the risk of harm. The evidence for a link between advertising and gambling harm currently appears much stronger than evidence indicating there is a risk of displacement to the black market if gambling advertising were restricted. The 60 Gambling regulation Government must commission independent longitudinal research on the link between gambling advertising and the risk of gambling harm, including specifically for women and children.
Government Response Summary
The government deflected the recommendation, focusing its response on measures to tackle the illegal online gambling market, including new powers for the Gambling Commission and delisting illegal sites from Google, rather than commissioning research on gambling advertising and harm.
Paragraph Reference:
78
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
13. The white paper set out the Government’s intention to further tackle the illegal online gambling market or “black market”. We recognise that illegal online gambling sites can pose a variety of risks to customers, including allowing access to those who have self-excluded from gambling through GAMSTOP, and the Committee rightly highlights this as a pertinent issue. As the Committee notes, we will introduce new powers for the Gambling Commission so it can more effectively take action against the illegal online gambling market through provisions set out in the Home Office’s Criminal Justice Bill. The Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 14 November 2023 and is currently at Commons Report stage. This will give increased powers to the Gambling Commission to support disruption and enforcement activity, such as to apply to a judge for court orders to enable the suspension of internet domain names and IP addresses, thereby blocking access to illegal gambling sites. We are aware that some illegal websites are targeted at people who experience significant harms from their gambling, such as self-excluded gamblers. The Gambling Commission has been working closely with internet search and service providers to do more to tackle unlicensed sites advertised as ‘Not on GAMSTOP’. It has established a protocol for referring unlicensed websites or affiliate URLs to Google. Once referred, Google will remove the specific URL from search results. Engagement continues to identify what Google and other search engines can do to minimise or prevent broad search terms and promoted links, and almost 7,000 illegal sites have been delisted from Google search results as a result of this work.