Baroness Twycross to Takeover Gambling Brief as Labour Reshuffle DCMS

Baroness Fiona Twycross is the new Minister for Gambling.

The gambling portfolio will be the only responsibility given to Baroness Twycross with Lisa Nandy MP taking overall responsibility for the Department of Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS). Sir Chris Bryant MP and Stephanie Peacock MP are also part of the DCMS team.

The gambling industry remains in a period of both change and stagnation due to the governmental chaos of the past seven years or so. White papers have been drafted and redrafted, affordability checks have been debated as multiple Conservative governments looked to change online gambling laws in an effort to ‘bring them up to the modern age’.

Campaigners have urged Labour to follow through on the £100m gambling levy on gambling companies promised by the previous government. The smart money is on Labour going ahead with all of the proposals set in the gambling White paper which was published last year.

However, whilst there are plenty of Labour politicians who are keen to set more limits on the gambling industry, there are also politicians who have close and friendly ties to the gambling industry. This does at least show signs of a healthy democracy, though. In addition, it was Tony Blair who first gave power to the gambling industry with the 2005 Gambling Act.

Later this week, the gambling industry is expected to publish figures which include the rates of problem gambling. These figures have been compiled using new methods which are much more likely to rate certain gamblers as problem gamblers. Some measures which are set out in the White Paper are set to go ahead, this includes a cap of between £2 and £5 on online slot machine stakes.

However, lots of other components of the White Paper are currently in limbo due to the change of government. All About Weybridge spoke to Jean Prince, the editor of UK gambling news at SlotsHawk, about what he expects from the new government:

“I am confident that Keir Starmer Labour will adopt the vast majority if not all of what the previous government wanted to do with the White Paper.

“Gambling companies/platforms regulated by the UKGC (United Kingdom Gambling Commission) have placed on them the tightest restrictions in the world, barring an outright ban.

But one must remember that all policies have their unintentional consequences. If even tighter restrictions are imposed on what punters can and cannot spend their money on, then those same punters will take their money to gambling platforms which are not regulated by the UKGC. And then the association of UK punters and gambling harm would be even stronger than it already is.”