British parliamentarians advertised gambling

As the British newspaper The Guardian reported around two weeks ago, parliamentarians, among others those of the ruling Tory-party, have worked for the gambling association Betting and Gaming Council (BGC). To be more precise, it seems that gambling adverts featuring British parliamentarians’ seem to have been created and published. But what is the consequence of this behaviour for politicians?

The actual scandal of profitable part time work by British politicians has created a big crisis. As the newspaper The Guardian has reported, several articles seem to have been published on the blog ConservativeHome. Beneath these articles, there is a reference which states “sponsored by the Betting and Gaming Council”. In March of this year we had reported about the suspicion, that Former Family Minister Schröder could be a lobbyist for the state gambling.

Tory-Politician praises tax payment of bet365

In one of the contributions, it was mentioned, among other things, that the Tory-Politician Jack Brereton had praised the effected tax payments of bet365. He specifically stated in this regard:

“It should not be forgotten, that bet365 and its founders are the largest taxpayers in Great Britain and in 2019/2020 they transferred around 614,6 million Pounds to the finance Ministry(…).“

Besides depicting the gambling providers in a positive way, the criticised blog posts also talked about the risks which could arise if strict stake limits are introduced. Besides this, one of the parliamentarians involved, stressed in an article, that the new legal situation must not jeopardise the competitiveness of the gambling firms. Zudem betonte ein beteiligter Abgeordneter in einem Artikel, dass die neue Gesetzeslage nicht die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Glücksspielfirmen gefährden darf.

Politicians received no money for the blog posts, but other things?

As the British newspaper The Guardian reported, the politicians involved did not receive any money from the gambling association for the blog posts. However instead, there is the suspicion that the British politicians could have profited from other niceties. The suspicion has especially resulted from the details which the individual parliamentarians made about their part time work.

For example the Tory-politicians Philip Davies and Mark Jenkinson have this summer received VIP invitations for a horse race. These tickets are said to be worth around 1,400 GBP each and seem to have been provided free by the gambling association.

Besides this the Tory-parliamentarian Laurence Robertson seems to have spoken in parliament more than once against the strict gambling laws. As the British newspaper Mirror reported, Robertson received a five digit amount every year from the gambling association for his lobbying. Just a few days ago we reported in an article about the effect of the credit card ban on gambling in Great Britain.

Conclusion

From the articles which were sponsored by the gambling association Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) one can see that there is a clear drift towards more liberal gambling laws. What is condemnable is not that the gambling association is taking this position, but that several British parliamentarians support the association with clear statements. We are excited to see, whether the activities of the British politicians will subsequently have more consequences. 

Image source: https://pixabay.com/de/illustrations/fahne-großbritannien-england-flagge-1090955/