Select committee: Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 23
Second Report - Gambling regulation
Published 21 Dec 2023
Paragraph 121
Addressed to Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Gambling regulation All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We support the proposed governance structure for the statutory levy. However, the Government must ensure that levy funds are clearly ringfenced for the purposes of understanding, preventing, and treating gambling harm. It must also use the levy to improve the integration of gambling treatment services across the NHS and third sector. To these ends, we consider that a new national strategy for reducing gambling harms will be warranted. Following the implementation of the statutory levy, the Levy Board should develop a new national strategy to reduce gambling harms. This strategy should include clear, measurable targets for harm reduction over a defined period.
From: Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Second Report - Gambling regulation (HC 176), paragraph 121, 21 December 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 19 April 2024 (deadline 19 April 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and says the white paper's measures will be implemented quickly, through secondary legislation, existing powers and voluntary industry action rather than a standalone Bill.
- On online slots, it has confirmed a statutory maximum stake of £5 per spin for those aged 25 and over and £2 for 18 to 24-year-olds, which it says align with the Committee's recommended range of £2 to £5. These take effect in September, following Parliamentary approval.
- On financial risk checks, it is committed to a "proportionate, frictionless system". The Gambling Commission will run a pilot for enhanced risk assessments, launching this summer, and will publish its consultation response "in due course".
- On point-of-sale information about product risk, it "notes" the recommendation and says existing risk-measurement models are not "sufficiently granular". It prefers design rules applying to all games, while a Department of Health and Social Care evidence review will inform new messaging.
- On the statutory levy, it says it remains "on track" to introduce it by secondary legislation "by this summer". It will publish its consultation response "in the coming weeks".