I’m pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this debate today. I’m very pleased that it’s a Bill that we are discussing that is going to confer more powers upon this Assembly, and that that Bill is being delivered by a Conservative Government at UK level and a Conservative Secretary of State. I want to pay tribute to them for standing by their words to deliver a Bill that is going to confer additional powers upon us. And I will say this: the Bill doesn’t as far as I would like in some areas, but it’s with joy that I am going to be voting for the Bill today, because of those additional areas in which we will be getting powers so that we can do something positive with those powers, and use them to great effect. I want to confine my comments today to one particular part of the Bill where I’m delighted that, through amendment, these additional powers have been added, and that is subsection 58 of Part 2 of the Bill, which devolves responsibility to Welsh Ministers for licensing gaming machines where a maximum stake is more than £10.

Now, as Members of this Assembly will be aware, I’ve never hidden my personal disdain for fixed-odds betting terminals and their link to problem gambling here in Wales. They are a scourge on Wales that have inflicted a significant personal and social damage on individuals, their families and communities the length and breadth of this country. And, of course, a recent independent report published by the Institute for Public Policy Research in December found that problem gambling is costing the Governments of Wales, England and Scotland up to £1.2 billion every single year. But we must remember that it’s the act of gambling and the pressure that the industry puts on individuals to gamble that are the fundamental areas where blame should be apportioned, not to those individuals, necessarily, themselves, because we have to remember that this is a disorder, an addiction that people are having to deal with, one that is equally as powerful as alcohol or substance misuse. Now, I stated, when wearing a previous portfolio hat, that given the power of gambling addiction, I think it should be viewed and treated as a public health issue, because of the impact that such a disorder has on the health and well-being of the affected individuals, their families and their loved ones, and it’s a significant impact.

Now, we know that, while gambling is not a new phenomenon in Wales, it is an issue that Wales has a particularly serious problem with. Despite our country being the only home nation not to gather statistics about problematic gambling and gambling disorders, the population as a whole is staking an amount that is equivalent to £1.6 billion per year of the nation’s gross domestic product into fixed-betting-odds terminals alone. As a comparison, that is £675 for every single adult here in Wales. Moreover, if you factor in the associated variable costs, such as the decline in work performance, potential unemployment, indebtedness, housing problems, et cetera that gambling causes, it demonstrates that gambling not only impacts on our nation’s health, but also on our nation’s economy as well.

So, I’ve been extremely pleased to champion this issue, along with other AMs here in this Chamber, and, indeed, some parliamentary colleagues at the Westminster end, by bringing a variety of stakeholders together to try to educate and influence everybody in this Chamber, and policy makers more widely, that this is something that requires urgent attention. Now, whilst there are some elements of public policy that we can change, in collaboration with some excellent organisations in the third sector, such as Beat the Odds, which, of course, is an organisation that was put together by CAIS, which is based in my constituency, and Living Room, down here in Cardiff, I don’t believe that we can really get to grips with this problem as a nation unless we have this legislative competence being bestowed upon us. That’s why I’m very, very keen to ensure that this LCM today gets a positive response from everybody across this Chamber, because it enables us to deal with this issue and other issues in areas of competence that will be coming to us. I was very pleased to see Eluned Morgan’s contributions in the House of Lords on this very issue while the Bill was making its passage through Parliament, because I think, personally, that this is something that we can all get around the table together on and deal with once and for all.

So, I want to encourage every Member in this Chamber to think very carefully about the opportunities that the Wales Bill presents to us. I appreciate that it doesn’t go as far as everybody in this Chamber would want, but these are important steps with important powers being conferred upon the National Assembly that we will be able to use to improve the quality of life of everybody in Wales, and, therefore, I will be supporting it.