Member

On my second set of amendments in this group, at Second Reading I rehearsed my concern about the ubiquitous link between sports and gambling—a concern that children see as normal the enjoyment of sport being closely linked to gambling on outcomes of sporting events. I shall not repeat those arguments now, nor detail the huge research base showing that harm caused by gambling advertising is ubiquitous, certainly in sport. Suffice it to say, major international sports events organisers are increasingly looking at what to do about it. Many have already taken action. The IOC has always maintained strict, clean venue policies that prohibit all sports betting and gambling sponsorship associations within the Olympic and Paralympic Games. For the current World Cup, FIFA is also enforcing clean venue policies, and bodies that organise Wimbledon and the Masters are among others that do the same. Many individual sporting event bodies that have not yet adopted this approach nevertheless agree that when it comes to decisions on such matters, it will be down to the host country to decide.