Gambling Addiction

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:54 pm on 3 July 2019.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:54, 3 July 2019

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.