Joint Committee on the Draft Gambling Bill Minutes of Evidence


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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