3.The Gambling Act 2005 (“the Act”) gives effect to the Government’s proposals for reform of the law on gambling. The Act contains a new regulatory system to govern the provision of all gambling in Great Britain, other than the National Lottery and spread betting. The Act received royal assent on 7th April 2005. A table of references to Hansard, reproducing the proceedings for the passage of the Gambling Act through Parliament, is set out at the end of these notes.
4.A draft Bill was published in November 2003 (Cm 6014), and further draft clauses were published in February and March 2004. The Bill followed on from the publication of a Government White Paper “A Safe Bet for Success” (Cm 5397) published in March 2002. The White Paper was itself the Government’s response to the report of the Gambling Review Body (Cm 5206) published in July 2001. The purpose of the publication of the draft Bill was to enable pre-legislative scrutiny to take place, by a Joint Committee of both Houses. The Joint Committee was convened on 16th September 2003, and produced two reports on 7th April 2004 (HL paper 63-1; HC 139-1) and 22nd July 2004 (HL Paper 146-1; HC 843-1). The Government’s responses to these reports were published on 14th June 2004 (Cm 6253) and 22nd September 2004 (Cm 6330).