Cosy ties and £400,000 in political donations: why Labour has a playing drawback

In February 2020, with the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour chief heating up, Keir Starmer’s workplace obtained a serving to hand.

Peter Coates, the top of the dynasty behind Stoke-based on-line playing firm Bet365, donated £25,000 to Starmer’s workplace.

Coates and the Bet365 group had been common donors to Labour till 2015, to the tune of £490,000, however the cash dried up within the Corbyn years, when Bet365 turned its consideration to stopping Brexit, handing £512,500 to the marketing campaign for Britain to stay within the EU.

The donation was a transparent signal that the playing {industry} spigot may simply be turned on once more.

Now, of the 12 most up-to-date political donations by the {industry} and its executives, all have gone to Labour – a complete of just below £400,000 stretching again to March 2020 – in keeping with Electoral Fee data.

However that river of money doesn’t simply point out Labour’s place because the possible winner of the 4 July normal election. It additionally illustrates the deep-rooted ties between the Labour get together and the £11bn-a-year playing sector.

Prior to now few weeks, revelations about bets apparently positioned on the date of the election by Conservative politicians have prompted anger about an obvious drawback with playing infecting politics.

The furore has overshadowed the truth that, on the time the election was known as, the Tory authorities was continuing with its long-awaited white paper on playing regulation.

With the way forward for these plans prone to be left within the fingers of a Labour authorities, there are query marks over whether or not it’s Labour, moderately than the Conservatives, that has a playing drawback.

“The stage is ready for a correct public well being method to playing coverage,” stated Matt Zarb-Cousin, a playing reform activist and former spokesperson for Corbyn. “The one factor stopping Labour going a lot additional than the Tories on this concern would be the affect of the playing foyer.”

In its manifesto, printed in early June, Labour talked powerful, declaring itself “dedicated to decreasing gambling-related hurt”.

That activity, in excessive instances the distinction between life and demise, will almost certainly fall to Stephanie Peacock, the shadow playing minister.

Her predecessor as Labour’s MP for Barnsley East, Michael Dugher, is now the chair of the {industry} foyer group, the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC).

He and Peacock seem like shut, often congratulating each other on one another’s political and private achievements through social media.

The revolving door between Labour and the BGC doesn’t cease at Dugher.

The foyer group has additionally employed the previous Labour MP Anna Turley as a sports activities advisor, whereas its director of company affairs, Gary Follis, was an adviser to the erstwhile Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls. Turley, who misplaced her Redcar seat in 2019, is campaigning to be re-elected within the north-east constituency.

Dugher stays near his buddy and former colleague Tom Watson.

Because the Labour deputy chief, Watson often denounced the worst excesses of the playing {industry}, calling for more stringent regulation.

Upon leaving politics, he took a job as an adviser to Paddy Power, an organization he had beforehand denounced as both “dirty” and “money-grabbing” after it provided odds on the trial of Oscar Pistorius for the homicide of Reeva Steenkamp.

Then there are these donations. Labour just isn’t alone in taking cash from playing corporations – the Executed brothers behind Betfred gave £375,000 to the Tories in 2016 and 2017.

However a lot of the {industry}’s generosity has been bestowed on the get together of opposition.

Since 2015, distinguished Labour MPs have obtained practically £30,000 from Crimson Capital Ltd, an funding automobile owned by Jonathan Mendelsohn, the Labour peer.

He’s additionally the chair of Evoke Holdings, which owns the William Hill, Mr Inexperienced and 888 playing manufacturers.

Recipients of Crimson Capital’s largesse embody the shadow house secretary Yvette Cooper (£5,000) and the shadow well being secretary Wes Streeting (£5,000). The get together itself pocketed £14,500.

Richard Flint, a former chief govt of Leeds-based Sky Betting & Gaming, gave Labour £25,000 in 2021, in addition to £10,000 to Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor and candidate for Leeds West who has held the seat since 2010.

Reeves additionally obtained £10,000 that 12 months from Neil Goulden, then a director of Gamesys, the proprietor of Virgin Video games and Rainbow Riches On line casino.

Between them, playing corporations who’ve donated to Labour, or whose senior employees have completed so, have paid out nearly £40m to the Gambling Fee previously three years for licence breaches together with failure to guard drawback gamblers.

These longstanding hyperlinks have tended to fly below the radar, partly because of the usually clumsy method by which Tories have cosied as much as the {industry}.

Salutary tales for a government-in-waiting embody Laurence Robertson and Philip Davies making tens of thousands of pounds by means of second jobs with the playing sector.

The previous Blackpool MP, Scott Benton, was caught last year by undercover reporters for the Times, posing on behalf of a faux funding fund, saying he would foyer ministers on behalf of the playing {industry} and leak a confidential coverage doc for as much as £4,000 a month.

However these characters are on the verge of turning into political footnotes, whereas Labour hopes to be the longer term.

“Recognising the evolution of the playing panorama since 2005, Labour will reform playing regulation, strengthening protections,” the get together’s manifesto says.

The pledge doesn’t inform the total story of how that panorama advanced.

It was Tony Blair’s government that gave birth to today’s permissive gambling regulatory environment in 2005.

When the invention of the smartphone made the laws out of date nearly in a single day, Labour didn’t adapt to the technological actuality: a supercasino in every pocket.

Through the lengthy interval main as much as the white paper, Carolyn Harris, the Labour candidate for Swansea East who has served the constituency since 2010, has been considered one of few in Labour advocating for more durable regulation.

The Conservative authorities, against this, has sought to place the genie again within the bottle considerably by means of final 12 months’s white paper.

A few of its proposals – caps on digital slot-machine stakes and financial risk checks – can proceed, overseen by the Playing Fee. Others, nonetheless, require secondary laws and should now be left as much as Labour.

These embody a statutory levy to fund addiction research, training and remedy, in addition to the introduction of a brand new ombudsman.

The amount of playing promoting in British society additionally stays an open query, one which campaigners stated was wrongly omitted from the white paper.

Some observers have stated they’re cautious of the tone of Labour’s manifesto pledge and what it means for unresolved regulatory questions.

“We are going to proceed to work with the {industry} on how to make sure accountable playing,” the get together stated, prompting a letter to the Guardian from teachers involved about {industry} affect.

Liz Ritchie, of the charity Playing With Lives, hopes reformists will even get their foot within the door at Westminster.

She stated: “We’re very hopeful {that a} Labour authorities would take heed to households bereaved by playing suicide and be taught from the catastrophic failures of regulation, public info and remedy that has characterised the industry-controlled system up to now.”

Labour declined to remark additional about its playing coverage plans or relationship with the {industry}.

However for individuals who imagine that cash buys affect, reformists seem like on manoeuvres too.

Few individuals gave extra to Labour final 12 months than the little-known former on line casino entrepreneur Derek Webb. He has beforehand thrown his weight behind reform, together with authorized help for Playing With Lives and the successful campaign to curb fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs).

Webb gave £300,000 to Labour in 2023, practically as a lot as something the get together has had from playing tycoons.

Peacock declined to remark.