7. Will the Minister make a statement on the provision of services to tackle gambling addiction in Wales? OAQ54152

Thank you. The Welsh Government has been working across portfolios to identify action that can be taken to reduce the prevalence of problem gambling and the impact it has upon both health and our wider society. We continue to hold discussions to determine how existing services can be used to support problem gamblers.

Minister, thank you for that answer. There is growing recognition across the whole of the UK and further afield of the epidemic emerging of gambling addiction, partly as a result of the massive expansion of online gambling. And it was at least encouraging to notice that within NHS England, 14 clinics are being set up with a view to providing addiction advice, but what is noticeable is, of course, that is partly funded, I understand, by the rather meagre voluntary contributions from the gambling industry itself via the Gambling Commission. I was wondering what steps may have been taken or could be taken by the Welsh Government to ensure that there is proper funding from those funds that are raised in Wales for gambling support, and whether you have any plans to meet with or to approach the Gambling Commission to ensure that, within Wales, there is equal support and provision of this much-needed area of gambling addiction support.  

Yes, I am aware of the announcements that have been made for the specialist provision. We already, actually, do refer some people into specialist provision across the border. I agree with the broad point the Member makes that, actually, a voluntary levy I think is unlikely to deliver the sort of responsible behaviour that we wish to see or, indeed, the resource. That isn't a view that is only held by people in our party; you'll recall that the then Minister, Tracey Crouch, resigned on a point of principle because the Government were not proposing to take forward measures on fixed-odds betting terminals. They subsequently did that, and, again, that was work across parties, with Carolyn Harris from my own party and others doing the work. So, there is a broader recognition in more than one part of the UK and in more than one party that this is a real challenge across society. 

There is work that is going on between the different health departments. The chief medical officer continues to lead work on this, following his report last year. There's regular engagement between him and both GambleAware and the Gambling Commission. I think it might be helpful for those Members—and I know they're in more than one party—who are interested in an update, if I were to arrange for the chief medical officer to provide an update on the work that's already been done and what that looks like, and then have a further report back on any further progress that is potentially being made on the issue of a compulsory levy, because my own personal view is that, without a compulsory levy, we won't see the sort of behavioural change of people who provide gambling opportunities and environments and, indeed, the resource that should come in to deal with the real harm that is caused.FootnoteLink  

Information further to Plenary

I welcome the action that's been taken to date but, of course, we can always do more, and I would absolutely want to see some more of the investment from the gambling industry, via the Gambling Commission, coming into Wales in order to develop our services and treatment centres for those with addictions. I hosted the annual conference with Beat the Odds last week on problem gambling, and it was focusing very much on young people and children in that particular forum this year. Can I ask what specific services might be available for children and young people who are actively now gambling through the gaming system online in games such as Star Wars and FIFA, where they have these sorts of loop boxes that give very, very terrible odds, and they're actually resulting in some young children gambling many thousands and losing many thousands of pounds of their family's income? I think it's a growing feature of the gambling landscape. It's something that now Disney is even cottoning on to. That's unacceptable. We need to get to grips with these issues. Can I ask whether there are going to be tailored services for children and young people within the ambit of the services that are being prepared and developed by the Welsh Government and, if so, how are we going to communicate the availability of those and the dangers of gambling to young people in our society?  

Actually, the new clinics have a particular focus on children and young people, which are being provided, but the challenge goes back to Mick Antoniw's point about the real capacity to do so, because the reason why games are being monetised in this way is exactly that: it's a way of raising income. And part of the issues that I raised with my colleague Julie James in her previous role was that we wrote jointly to the Gambling Commission about the way that the ability to gamble and adverts promoting gambling are associated with activities that are deliberately targeted at children and young people, not just from the world of online gaming but mainstream activities like sport as well. The number of football teams, for example, that have a high-profile gambling sponsor and the adverts that take place well before the watershed, I think, are a real problem. They're contributing to the problem and not helping us to address this, and I'm pleased to see there's some cross-party agreement on this because we're not where we need to be right now, in my view.