Peter Hannibal, chief executive of the cross-sector strategic body, the Gambling Business Group, has welcomed the launch of Peers for Gambling Reform, describing it as possessing ‘some great minds and intellects’ at the same time as urging caution that debate is based on sound empirical evidence. He stated: “The House of Lords Select Committee proved itself to be an important and influential body. It is therefore encouraging to see them continue working together as a group in order to bring some logic and balance to the review of the Gambling Act. However, it is vital that this influential group differentiates between facts and sensationalist fiction. That they have set up Twitter and online accounts makes them accessible, which of course provides a method to correct any misunderstandings about gambling. Some of the statements they are presenting as facts are far from accurate. They claim that ‘55,000 problem gamblers are aged 11-16’ but it has been said many times before that this figure came from highly unreliable evidence taken from outside of the UK and is not relevant to gambling in this country but surprisingly, it continues to be misused. Similarly, there is no empirical evidence from the UK to support the statement that ‘One problem gambler commits suicide every day’. It is important that Peers for Gambling Reform uses its collective knowledge and insight not to get caught up in headline- grabbing sound bites, but to base their deliberations on evidence. It, has been said on many occasions that creating legislation without supporting empirical evidence results in bad legislation. Gambling is no different.”