UK: John Whittingdale takes on lotteries and gambling brief

John Whittingdale has taken over the UK government lotteries and gambling brief and will oversee the current review of legislation.

UK.- John Whittingdale has taken over the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s lotteries and gambling brief and will oversee the government’s review of gambling legislation.

Whittingdale, the UK government’s minister for media and data, has taken over lotteries and gambling from Nigel Huddleston. He will continue to oversee his other areas of responsibility, which include the media and international strategy and trade deals.

He has been a member of parliament for the constituency of Maldon since 1992. He chaired the Culture, Media and Sport Committee from 2005 until 2015, and served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from May 2015 to July 2016.

Review of British Gambling legislation

Whittingdale became Minister of State for Media and Data in February 2020.

He will now be responsible for overseeing the UK government’s review of British gambling legislation.

The DCMS has proposed increasing remote licence fees by 55 per cent to increase funding for the Gambling Commission.

Parliamentary records show that Whittingdale has voted several times in favour of the gambling industry. 

In 2014, he voted against giving councils the powers to limit fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs).

He also voted to increase stake limits and prize limits of certain categories of gambling machines. In 2013, he voted not to oblige gambling operators to ban players who registered for self-exclusion