Examination of Witnesses (Questions 760
- 764)
THURSDAY 22 JANUARY 2004
MR ANDREW
TOTTENHAM, MR
RICHARD FLINT,
MR BILL
HAYGARTH, MR
JOHN O'REILLY,
MR PAUL
JAMES AND
MR CLIVE
HAWKSWOOD
Q760 Lord Donoughue of Ashton: In
some evidence to us and some research suggests that gambling on
the internet is more addictive than many other forms of gambling.
The Gambling Charitable Trust was established with a target of
£3 million which many believe is perhaps too low, could you
tell us precisely how much the remote gambling industry has contributed
to the trust so far?
Mr Haygarth: As you heard from
our Chief Executive on Tuesday the ABB has so far raised £78,000
for the GCIT. Those contributions have been raised on behalf of
all of its members, betting office operators, telephone operators
and on-line operators. We do not make a distinction or allocate
the funds raised for the different channels.
Q761 Lord Donoughue of Ashton: Could
you give us an estimate of the breakdown?
Mr Haygarth: I am afraid I could
not at this moment in time.
Q762 Chairman: Some of the people
who paid operate remote gambling as well as betting shops, do
they?
Mr Haygarth: Yes.
Q763 Chairman: It would be helpful
if you would write to us with the breakdown.
Mr Tottenham: It is the same position
for us. It is very hard for us to break it down because, for example,
RAL is one of our members, they operate high street adult entertainment
centres and they operate on a website, Rank Plc operate casinos
and remote.
Mr Flint: BSkyB is purely a remote
gambling operator. We have committed £90,000 to Gamcare,
I think in future we will route that via the charitable trust.
Chairman: You all accept this is the
responsibility of the remote gambling industry.
Lord Donoughue of Ashton: Would Mr Tottenham
write to us also with some estimate of the breakdown?
Q764 Lord Mancroft: I think it is
widely accepted that there is a narrow window of opportunity for
the United Kingdom to become the leader in the remote gambling
industry round the world, is there anything going on abroad in
international development that would lead you to conclude that
window is closing? Clearly you want to get regulated, get set
up and get going quickly, is that slipping away or are we still
on target?
Mr Tottenham: One of our concerns
is there are political considerations here. If this Bill does
not get entered into in this current session it might not actually
reach the House possibly even until two or three years after the
next election. Because of what is happening in this Bill here,
and what is happening in Europe there are European governments
that are actively looking at the regulations of remote gambling
and prior to the Bush's tenancy in the United States a number
of state governors were very close to passing laws allowing remote
gambling. We do not know what is going to happen there but there
is a possibility that that would happen in the US. There is a
danger that if we leave it now it will be four or five years before
this comes back and we could find ourselves that there are other
jurisdictions and there would be no reason to come here.
Mr Haygarth: The ABB view is that
it is more important to get the regulations right than to do it
quickly. You only have to look at what happened in the Isle of
Man where they introduced codes and regulations without consulting
the operators and in spite of the initial application licences
they awarded clearly the regime did not work and all of those
licensees either shut up shop or moved else where. We welcome
the approach that is being taken by the government and we welcome
the engagement of the Gambling Commission who are in a position
to ensure if there is a licensing regime they get it right.
Chairman: We hope from all of the answers
you have given us this morning, which we are very grateful for,
it will enable us to make a series of recommendations to the Government
to enable them to get it right. We take your points as well. Can
I thank you all very much for your attendance today. Thank you.
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