§ Lord Donoughueasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why, in paragraph 4.10 of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's report A Safe Bet for Success, there is a proposal to allow amusementwith-prizes (AWP) gaming machines generally in unlicensed and unsupervised premises; and whether this is consistent with (a) paragraph 23.12 of the Budd Report (Cm 5207) and (b) market research which suggests that machines in unlicensed premises are opposed by the public. [HL3959]
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§ The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Blackstone)A Safe Bet for Success (Cm 5397) draws a clear distinction between gaming machines and amusement machines which can offer a. small prize. The Government plan that the maximum stakes and prizes in such amusement machines will be 10p and £5.
Gaming machines will he allowed only in on-licensed premises, registered clubs and specific gambling premises. Amusement machines will be allowed, with local authority permission, in other types of premises also. Paragraphs 7.10 to 7.12 of Cm 5397 explain our reasoning.
The report of the Gambling Review Body, chaired by Sir Alan Budd, noted that the research which it had commissioned indicated that most of those questioned did not think that there should be no fruit machines in venues such as cafes, take-away food shops and minicab offices.
§ Lord Donoughueasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether there is any official or reliable information on how many gaming machines operate in the United Kingdom; how much is spent on gaming machines; how many scratch cards are sold; and whether there is any central list of the physical location of operating gambling outlets, or gaming machines, or lottery terminals; and, if not, how they propose to collate and publish such statistical information, as is required by law in other gambling countries, prior to legislation on gambling. [HL3960]
§ Baroness BlackstoneA Safe Bet for Success (Cm 5397), which sets out the Government's plans for reforming the controls on the gambling industry in Great Britain, estimates the number of gaming machines in Great Britain at 250,000 and the money retained from them each year by suppliers and site owners at £1.5 billion, gross of tax.
In 2000–01, 546 million National Lottery scratchcards were sold. Information is not readily available about the number of scratchcards sold through society lotteries.
The Gaming Board for Great Britain holds a list of operating bingo clubs and casinos. The locations of betting shops, racetracks and gaming machine arcades are known to their respective licensing authorities but there is no central list of these premises. There is no central list of the location of gaming machines.
The National Lottery operator maintains a list of retailers with its terminals.
A Safe Bet for Success does not propose the publication of a central list of the location of gambling facilities.
§ Lord Donoughueasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the chairman of the Gaming Board stated on 11 April that amusement-with-prizes (AWP) gaming machines should not be allowed generally in unlicensed and unsupervised premises. [HL4006]
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§ Baroness BlackstoneIn his speech to the Gambling Industry Forum on 11 April, the chairman of the Gaming Board said that the board had suggested that AWP machines should be removed from out lets such as cafes and fish and chip shops. Partly because experience showed that such machines were often sited without a permit or were of a type not allowed; and that the problem would remain and enforcment would in practice be difficult.