Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:36 pm on 27 November 2018.
The Member highlights a matter of some concern, across the Chamber, to everybody. Earlier this year, I wrote jointly with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services to the Advertising Standards Authority about the proliferation of gambling advertising on television, and through social media and online—for those of us who are gamers, it's absolutely all over the gaming industry—particularly in the way they seek to influence vulnerable and especially children and young people in those adverts. Their response was placed in the Members' library, and I've subsequently met with the Advertising Standards Authority to discuss the issue of shared mobile devices, and how they know who's being targeted by them. They're taking it very seriously indeed, I'm pleased to say.
As a Government, we have been working across departments to identify actions we can take to reduce and tackle the gaming gambling-related issues. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services is planning to make a statement in due course, outlining the actions taken so far, and what else we can do. We are taking this very seriously indeed. The Member is absolutely right to highlight the difficulties, and the work on fixed-odds betting terminals that's being undertaken in the UK Parliament by Labour colleagues has gone some way to addressing this as well.