Lord Foster of Bath (LD)

My Lords, I declare my interests as chairman of Peers for Gambling Reform and as a vice-chair of the APPG on Gambling Reform. I assure the Minister that, today, I will say nothing further on advertising, but I will be back on that subject later. I begin with a very strong welcome for these two statutory instruments. Many of us have campaigned for many years to achieve what they bring. However, having said that, it is clear that we need to get them absolutely right. I start with the SI on stake limits. Noble Lords are aware that, with the mass adoption of smartphones, the evidence grew that online slots—accounting for more than half of gambling revenues online—were causing a great deal of harm. So the campaign began to try to get the same £2 stake limit for online gambling as had been achieved by the successful, although lengthy, campaign to get a £2 maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals, which was introduced in 2019. We welcome the £2 limit for younger players announced in the statutory instrument, but Peers for Gambling Reform, the APPG, the noble Lords behind me and the right reverend Prelate have all rightly expressed real concern about the £5 limit for other players. We fail to understand why the Government went for it. Unfortunately, I can provide a possible answer: I think it is based on the Government’s ill-judged desire to grow the gambling sector. As the Minister knows, I have been very concerned. For instance, at the GambleAware conference at the end of last year, she said, “I believe it is possible to have an industry that is growing and that is safer for consumers”. Frankly, I find it hard to understand how a Government who acknowledge that gambling should be treated as a public health issue can also claim to want to help the gambling industry grow. Reducing gambling harm simply is not compatible with growing the size of the gambling industry, as was made clear in the recent report by the Lancet public health commission on gambling.