12:45pm
Finance Bill Committee
Gambling
James Duddridge: Thank you for calling me, Mr. Atkinson. I know that it is not traditional for a Whip to speak, but I represent Southend and this measure is very relevant. There was lots of amusement in Southend over the weekend but there was certainly no amusement over clauses 21 and 22. I would like to probe the Minister for more detail on the reasons for the larger than inflation increases and to look at whether there can be flexibility on the periods for which the machines are licensed.
In Southend some arcades are closed during the off season but still pay a significant amount for licences. In 2003 there was a big review of such machines. It was decided to leave all alone and that no further progress should be made given the difficult underlying market conditions and the real concern about the industry as a whole. We are looking at the changes in difficult economic times, at the height of recession, when people are less prepared to spend money either at home or visiting areas of entertainment and pleasure, such as Southend seafront where there are a lot of amusement arcades.
I would like the Minister to look at not only the amount, but the location of machines. I have entered into extensive correspondence with Bunter’s CafÃ(c) of 68 Sutton road-I do not expect the Minister to know the exact case. It may sound parochial, but sometimes looking at a specific issue shows how foolish legislation is. Bunter’s CafÃ(c) has always had a little machine that you could put money in and gamble, which was licensed via Southend council. Under the Gambling Act 2005 it will not be allowed to have that machine, but if it sold alcohol, it would be allowed to have it with no other changes and, presumably, would pay the increased machine licence duty. That makes no sense to me. If it is unsafe to have a machine in a cafÃ(c), because of the type of people that will be there, surely it is more unsafe, in terms of being addictive, if people can have it in licensed premises. It does not seem to make sense, even if there is an argument for children in fish and chip shops paying over money, that there cannot be a licensed machine in a cafÃ(c) but there can be one in a family room in a licensed pub. There seems to be an awful lot of inconsistency.
I want to go back to the rates. The British Amusement Catering Trade Association, which is an excellent organisation, has questioned whether this is the right time to be making these changes. Revenues in amusement arcades have collapsed by 21 per cent. and I wonder whether the Minister has a grip on the impact on the industry. I say that because on 19 May 2008 my hon. Friend the Member for Putney asked a series of questions, requesting estimates of the number of those machines in amusement arcades, both historically and the predicted levels in the future. The Minister replied that there was no breakdown of the numbers of amusement machines in arcades or of amusement machine licence duty that is collected specifically in arcades. If the Department does not have an awareness of those numbers, how can it possibly assess the impact of these changes? I can tell the Minister that there is quite a severe impact. Amusement arcades are closing and that will mean a loss to the Exchequer overall.
Also, as more legislation is imposed on these smaller arcades, a flood of them are turning into bigger arcades, with heavier gambling. So, some of the things that the Government are doing in this sector are counter-productive, both in terms of increasing revenue and of minimising the possibility of people becoming addicted to gambling.