Gambling can have significant adverse effects on people which can
include addiction, mental health problems, financial loss, and in
some cases crime or suicide.
Excluding the National Lottery, gambling operators earned
£11.3bn in 2018-19. All gambling in Britain is regulated by
the Gambling Commission with the aim to “ensure gambling is
fair and safe”. It is funded by licence fees from industry,
which amounted to £19 million in the same period.
Overall responsibility for the policy and regulatory
framework lies the Department for Digital, Culture, Media
& Sport (DCMS), which has an objective to ensure
gambling is socially responsible. The industry is
increasingly complex, with new risks emerging from online
and mobile gambling and games that share features with
gambling but are not regulated as such.
The report finds that there are an estimated 395,000
problem gamblers in Great Britain, with 1.8 million more
gamblers at risk who may also be experiencing harm. The
report finds that the Gambling Commission is improving its
regulation but has more to do including taking a more
strategic approach to influencing gambling operators to
raise standards.
The NAO concludes that even with improvements, the
Commission’s ability to protect gamblers faces constraints
in the regulatory framework, including inflexible funding
and gaps in redress arrangements, and that the Commission
is unlikely to be fully effective in addressing risks and
harms to consumers within the current arrangements.
This will be the first time the Committee has examined
gambling regulation in recent years. On Monday 27 April at
2.30 pm the Committee will question officials from the
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the
Gambling Commission, on how well the current regulatory
framework protects gamblers.
The Committee will also ask officials about how current
restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
could affect those susceptible to the negative impacts of
gambling.
The hearing on Monday 27 April 2020 will be available to
watch in full live and in archive at www.parliamentlive.tv
