As the government finally launches the Gambling White Paper
today, Labour is urging ministers to bring in new gambling reform
before the Summer recess to save lives.
The bulk of changes to gambling legislation can be made through
secondary legislation following consultation on their plans.
The majority of people who gamble do so in moderation, but for
some families gambling has devastating consequences. The ease and
availability of gambling online, and unregulated models and
practices have seen this rise in recent years. Gambling
regulation has not kept pace with the huge explosion of gambling
online and on smart phones with few checks and balances. Bringing
in new regulation is an urgent task.
Following the government’s statement in the House of Commons,
Labour is calling on ministers to act urgently to introduce these
changes before the Summer, offering to work with government,
industry, and third sector organisations to ensure that gambling
laws are updated and unscrupulous practices are outlawed.
, Labour’s Shadow Culture
Secretary, said:
“We’ve long called for outdated gambling laws - introduced when
smart phones weren’t part of our lives - to be updated so that
they can tackle the challenges with gambling today.
“While Labour has called for change, ministers have dragged their
feet with the chaos we’ve seen in government meaning many false
starts. We’ve had ten different ministers in charge of gambling
policy since a White Paper was first promised in December 2020.
“Analogue gambling regulation must be updated for the digital
age. We will work cross-party to make this happen. There’s no
reason we can’t get all this done by the Summer recess and after
years of delay, that’s what we should do.”
