Recent reports have revealed that the UK gambling industry continues to boost the money spent on local Members of Parliament’s incentives, causing serious concern regarding the impact that the sector has on the country’s politics.
According to The Guardian, gambling operators and their lobbyists have boosted the amount they spend on inducements for local politicians ten times in five years, which makes it one of the sectors with the closest ties to the Government. As some publicly available parliamentary records have shown, a large number of Members of Parliament from the Labour and Conservative Parties have been granted corporate hospitality worth thousands of pounds over the last few years, with the money being provided by some of the largest gambling operators in the UK.
The analysis has followed reports that Scott Benton, a Member of Parliament from the Conservative Party, offered to become a gambling industry lobbyist in return for money, and shows that the local gambling sector currently spends tens of thousands of dollars annually, mainly on tickets for various sporting events for politicians. The actual figure, however, is likely to be even bigger, as companies are not required to declare contributions and spending worth less than £300.
As mentioned above, the figures have triggered much concern about the influence the country’s gambling sector has on local politicians, especially at a time when the UK Government is preparing the official release of its White Paper on gambling.
UK Politicians Receive Tickets and Corporate Hospitality Worth Thousands of Pounds as Incentives by the Gambling Sector
In a recently published analysis, the Guardian claims that the largest gambling operators and their lobbyists spent a little under £8,000 on tickets for various sports events for six Members of Parliament, their friends and families in 2019. Reportedly, Laurence Robertson, a Member of Parliament from the Conservative Party, was one of the biggest recipients of the aforementioned incentives, with him accepting tickets and hospitality worth thousands of pounds from Coral and William Hill.
By 2021, the number of Members of Parliament who have accepted hospitality and gifts from the UK gambling industry had risen to 25, with the sector having spent about £114,000. Almost that entire amount was spent on tickets and corporate hospitality at musical and sporting events for UK Members of Parliament. In the same year, Mr Benton received tickets to multiple tennis, racing, and football events worth almost £6,000. A large number of Labour and Conservative MPs were given similar tickets and corporate hospitality worth almost £3,500 each to visit the semi-final of Euro 2020.
Last year, 36 Members of Parliament were granted tickets and corporate entertainment to various events, including football, racing, and rugby, worth approximately £87,000. The trade body representing the legal gambling sector in the UK – the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) – was reported to have spent almost £7,000 to take four Members of Parliament, including Benton and Robertson, to the Brit Awards, as well as a further £4,000 to take five Members of Parliament to a concert of the English pop-star Ed Sheeran.
So far in 2023, the gambling sector in the UK has spent a bit over £13,000 on various payments to local politicians, with all the money being provided by the Betting and Gaming Council.
The UK Gambling Sector Fears of Further Restrictions, Carolyn Harris MP Claims
Carolyn Harris, MP and a long-time campaigner for stricter regulation of gambling, shared that the financial capabilities of the industry and its willingness to offer special treatment to local politicians were quite obvious lately. She also noted that representatives of the gambling sector are even targeting regular people offering them free drinks at bars and suggesting other incentives that they would never get access to under normal circumstances.
According to Ms Harris, the gambling sector does so because it is terrified of further regulation. She also noted that, currently, 60% of the industry’s profits are generated by about 10% of the customers, so operators make their best to protect the status quo.
Recently, the Times revealed some undercover footage of Scott Benton MP making a promise to return the favour from his colleagues and offer easy access to ministers in return for a £4,000 payment from a fake gambling operator. Mr Benton, who has been previously suspended from the parliamentary Conservative Party, is one of the many local politicians who have accepted corporate hospitality from the gambling sector on multiple occasions over the last few years.
Last week, the Times also released a second video featuring Mr Benton advising the undercover media hub’s reporters to register the tickets as being priced under £300 in order to circumvent the requirement for such incentives to be declared.
Betting and Gaming Council Becomes Increasing Source of Incentives Spending
The past few years have seen the Betting and Gaming Council, a trade body representing the regulated UK gambling industry, become an increasing source of spending on the aforementioned incentives to local politicians, at a time when individual companies are offering less in voluntary donations.
The organisation has been supporting the interests of the sector in the Government’s ongoing gambling review, which, according to recent reports, is likely to unveil further restrictions on the industry, including on the amount gamblers are allowed to spend on online gambling activities. Throughout the review process, the trade body for the gambling industry has pursued a narrower definition of the term gambling-related harm, claiming that the current debate on the matter had resulted in serious misinformation regarding the prevalence of so-called gambling harm, including by extending its definition.
For the time being, the main lobbyist for the Betting and Gaming Council in Parliament is Laurence Robertson, who receives a monthly payment of £2,000 to serve as the organisation’s parliamentary adviser on sport and safer gambling. Mr Robertson has noted that the country’s gambling sector currently provides about 110,000 jobs, which is also why it routinely engages with politicians, apart from racing and football, where it had had a close and historic relationship. As he explained, engaging with local Members of Parliament has been a matter of paramount priority for the trade body, while there was no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the organisation itself or its members.
- Author
Olivia Cole
