Concerns over UK Political Parties Receiving Gambling Donations
United Kingdom (UK) politician Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Reform, has urged both the main parties in the UK to decline donations and gifts from gambling companies because it may influence future decisions on gambling reform in the region.
UK MP raises issues over gambling donations to political parties.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:Duncan Smith is a leading critc in the UK Parliament of the gambling industry and openly pursues an agenda of stringent controls of the gambling sector. This issue concerns both leading political parties in the UK, Labour and the Tories, as they have received donations from the gambling sector in the past.
He acknowledges that UK political parties need funding to operate their day to day activities, but points out that this could lead to a conflict of interests when Members of Parliament (MPs) have to make decisions regarding changes to gambling legislation in the region.
The UK gaming industry is in the process of updating the Gambling Act to reflect a more advanced technological environment. The government White Paper has outlined many of the proposed changes to the current legislation in an ongoing consultation period. Duncan Smith has been vociferous in saying the proposals did not go far enough in terms of advertising and protecting underage youth from gambling-related harm.
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Level of Gambling Donations Highlighted
Details of donations from gambling-related stakeholders have been highlighted recently, including more than £1 million gifted to the ruling Labour Party earlier this year.
There have also been donations to individuals including the Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer, with his office having previously received £25,000 from bet365. Additionally the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves accepted a £20,000 donation to her private office earlier this year.
As well as donations, Iain Duncan Smith highlighted that gambling companies often give MPs tickets to events worth thousands of pounds. He feels all these activities could be seen as an attempt to influence MPs in favor of gambling operators.
Yes, this is always a problem really because you have got to detach that sort of thing from your policy. The reality is in the world of politics you do run political parties without very much state intervention, if any at all at times, so you do need to reach for money. But I would advise political parties to sup with a very long spoon on these companies. I think they are utterly rapacious. They don’t care about the harms that they create.
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