---

Sports Betting

I have already said that I welcome the setting up of the panel and I hope it will help to inform the Gambling Commission, so that it can do more effective work in that direction in future. The hon. Gentleman is perhaps being slightly unfair on the commission, which has made it clear what it plans to do—I just wish it had been doing it rather sooner. Let me say to the Minister that the issue of internet gambling is critical. There are some 6,500 internet gambling sites around the world, only 1,000 or so are regulated anywhere in the world, and very few are regulated in the UK. The Gambling Commission's briefing tells us that it is going to work hard on its licence condition 15.1, which is on the business of sharing information. It is critical that we get some assurance from the Minister that that licence condition applies to gambling sites regulated in the European economic area and within white-listed jurisdictions. Will he assure us that there will be regular checks that that is happening and that information is flowing? I agree entirely with the hon. Member for Shipley, who praised organisations such as Betfair, which has gone out of its way to share information. The critical issue we now have to address is ensuring that all the organisations involved—whether the sports governing bodies or the betting organisations—are given help with knowing what to look for, and we must check that they are looking for it. We must also make sure that we support the sports governing bodies, not necessarily financially, but in adopting procedures to ensure that we have information flows, so that action can be taken if and when illegal gambling affects the outcome of a sporting activity.