Experts Gathered By UK’s Health and Social Care Select Committee
Leading experts are set to give evidence about gambling-related harms to the Health and Social Care Select Committee this week.
Parliament will hear evidence on gambling-related harms this week © Marcin Nowak, Unsplash
Key Facts:
- Parliament will hear from specialists on Wednesday, 02.04
- UK’s government is committed to reforming the gambling industry and has already introduced a range of measures
- Slot stake limits and a statutory levy have been brought in
- Meeting will be held at the Thatcher Room in Portcullis House
Various specialists have been lined up to appear at the hearing, which has been scheduled for the morning of April 2.
At the Thatcher Room in Portcullis House, the summit is the latest step in the government’s attempts to reform the gambling industry in the UK.
Operators have already been told they will have to contribute to a new statutory levy, which Labour has claimed is set to raise as much as £100 million in revenue.
Online casinos are also being forced to introduce slot stake limits for their games to make it easier for players to keep a grip on their spending at such sites.
The Health and Social Care Select Committee public meeting is likely to help the government as it seeks to decide which other measures are needed to combat gambling-related harms.
Top Experts Lined Up
Some of the UK’s best-known experts on the dangers of gambling are set to appear.
Among them is Professor Heather Wardle, who is the co-chair of the Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling.
Professor Wardle, who is also a professor of gambling research and policy at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, has contributed to many key studies on the harms of betting.
In the early session, she will be joined by the director of public health in Nottingham, Lucy Hubber, and Professor Sam Chamberlain, who is the University of Southampton’s professor of psychiatry and the director of the Southern Gambling Treatment Clinic.
From 10:30 am, the committee will hear from a trio of new experts, including the national clinical advisor on gambling harms, Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones.
There will also be evidence from the UK’s regulatory for the industry, with the Gambling Commission’s executive director of research and policy, Tim Miller, set to appear as well.
The group of six experts is rounded out by Andrew Vereker, the deputy director for tobacco, alcohol and gambling at the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.
Role Of UKGC
Among the issues that will be debated is the role of the Gambling Commission, which has been put in charge of collecting the industry’s new statutory levy.
MPs at the Health and Social Care Select Committee public hearing will be asking questions about how the regulator operates and on the commissioning of effective treatment and prevention services.
The new statutory levy is set to raise funds that will go towards combating gambling-related harms in the UK. Data suggests approximately 25 million people in England gambled during the course of 2023.
The British gambling industry had a gross gambling yield of £15.6 billion in the financial year to the end of 2024, with the government on the record as stating it wants to facilitate a “cultural shift” in the understanding of gambling-related harms.
