The move comes ahead of the judgement on the review of the Gambling Act 2005. Lord Foster is a long-time gambling reform advocate and is Chairman of Peers for Gambling Reform, which released its report on ideal outcomes of the review last year.
Namely, the PGR is looking for reforms like stake limits on high-risk casino games, mandatory RET funding levies, bans on sports sponsorships, and loot boxes to be classified as gambling.
What has Lord Foster got to say?
On Tuesday, March 8th, the former MP for Bath further repeated his calls in the Lords. As reported by the BBC, he accused the UK government of taking “long enough”, having “delayed and dithered” according to the Lord, to fix an oversight in the betting industry that he claims is well out of date.Lord Foster, former bath MP told the BBC: “It’s worth remembering that the legislation that provides the regulation around gambling was introduced before the first smartphone was invented, so we’ve got a piece of legislation that simply is out of date. As many people have said, ‘it’s analogue legislation in a digital age’.
“The government have delayed and dithered bringing forward the much-needed reforms which is why we are having to really get these reforms as quickly as possible.”
The White Paper on the Gambling Act 2005 is set to be published sometime this spring.