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Finance Bill

I should like to make a little progress, but I will give way shortly. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Justine Greening) for introducing the amendment—an important amendment for the industry—and it is good to see that the shadow Treasury team is willing to listen and talk to other Departments. There is a dilemma in that the Treasury team is not willing to see the consequences of tax rises for the industries involved, so I am pleased that we are putting forward a proposal to remove the limit on B3 machines not only in adult gaming centres but in bingo halls. I underline my support for the removal of the £1 stake limit and its return to £2. To place that in its historical context, we had the same situation before the Gambling Act 2005, but there was no problem. They were called section 16 machines—that was old money—but they are now called section B3 machines. The hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West wanted evidence, so let us look at the Gambling Commission's prevalence study on areas of problem gambling. If we do so, we find that when it comes to machines under the banner of soft gambling, the figure is about 2.5 per cent. If we compare that with FOBTs—fixed-odds betting terminals—found in bookies up and down the country, the prevalence study report shows an addiction to gambling of 11.4 per cent. That is a huge difference, and that is perhaps where we should focus our attention, rather than the soft form of gambling. Speaking as the shadow Gambling Minister, let me state the Conservative view that we need the right level of regulation for every type of gambling, whether it be penny arcades, the Crockfords casino or, indeed, internet gambling—another area that we have not even touched on, but I know that you, Mr. Cook, would correct me if I wandered down that road. Let us be clear: where is the evidence from this Government to justify hitting the soft forms of gambling such as bingo and the penny arcades? I do not like the term ““adult gaming centres””, which has a seedy ring to it. I see the Minister smiling and I hope she agrees that perhaps another term could be used. These soft forms of gambling are part of our community, whether in seaside towns like those in my Bournemouth constituency or some of the other places mentioned in our debate. May I place on record my sadness that so few Members are in their places, suggesting that they are not supporting their local tourism industries? That applies particularly to those who signed early-day motion 840, which calls for exactly the changes that we are debating today. Another consequence of the Gambling Act 2005 is that we have seen a 21 per cent. downturn in the trade of adult gaming centres. That is what has happened. People are migrating out of the arcade centres and, indeed, the bingo centres and going across the road to the bookies, where there is a different and harder form of gambling, which now meets their desires. I have already mentioned the FOBTs, where £100 a bet can be put down every 20 seconds and scant regard is paid to what is actually being done. That is the consequence—the unintended consequence—of the Gambling Act 2005, which we have an opportunity to amend today. That is why we are proposing the amendment.