UK General Election 2017: What the gambling industry needs to know

Fortunately, space does not permit me to vent my spleen over just how appalling this election is. The UK General Election 2017, to be held on 8 June, will be to my mind the worst collection of party leaders, representing the worst policies this country has ever suffered – at least since the last election two years ago, and if not, the one before. British politics is at its lowest point in my lifetime and I blame the electorate who just encourages them.

So it was with a meagre modicum of interest that I analyse the main party manifestos (Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats) to see if anything gambling related is mentioned. However, it is probably a pointless exercise as this election will be a coronation for Theresa May and if you think any differently, you are obviously President Putin ready to get your hackers to work.

Key gambling policies

The Tory manifesto is snappily titled ‘Forward, Together – Our Plan for a Stronger Britain and a Prosperous Future’ and could easily have been called, ‘We didn’t need to do this as we’re going to weigh the frigging votes – so this is just basically frosting’. It mentions gambling only once when it refers to our levy for responsible gambling and it says it would set up a similar scheme for social media companies to counter internet harms.

Also in the digital age section is the mention of gaming as one of the many digital expertise the country has, although this is probably computer games. So although barely a mention, it’s not bad when you consider gambling isn’t really a vote winner in any party’s book and this really is the only book (manifesto) worth noticing.

Next is the Labour Party’s ‘we will promise you anything that you want, however much it costs, because it doesn’t matter as we’re never going to be elected’ otherwise known as ‘For The Many Not The Few’. This was leaked by the Labour Party a week before its official launch and voted-in unanimously by all sections of the Party in a ‘you must own this defeat Corbynistas’. It is already being described as a political suicide note, but not to the same extent as the 1983 one famously was.

Labour’s manifesto, unsurprisingly, does mention gambling in the form of a promise to destroy Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) by reducing the stake to £2 and slowing down the spin rate. This was only to be expected as not only has it been Labour Party policy for some years now but one of the activists of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, the post-truth anti-FOBT commercial lobbyists, is a major Corbyn acolyte and responsible for Labour having the worst press team in British politics.

Finally, the Liberal Democrats. It is not technically Britain’s third party now as the Scottish Nationalists have over five times more seats but they are the third biggest party when it comes to representing the whole of the United Kingdom, even if it may be the last time it remains United. God loves a tryer and in ‘Changing Britain’s Future’, they’ve thrown everything at it including legalising prostitution and marijuana – so fun for all. But not for retail betting as they, like Labour, want to destroy FOBTs. This also has been a party policy for some time. Hardly surprising as the multi-millionaire boss of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling has lavished them with donations over the years.

Tax and Gibraltar

On a more macro level, the main parties are predictably split on Corporation Tax. The Tories are keeping with the plan to bring it down to 17% by 2020, Labour say they will increase it for big companies and the Lib Dems are promising to reverse the Tory cut and keep it at the 20% rate. Where all three parties are in agreement is over Gibraltar – all promise to defend its rights and economic ability. So a glimmer of hope for them, not that what anyone does in the UK really matters, it shows EU27 responds to Brexit that counts.

So what do we take away from all of this? No one reads manifestos, voters choose Party leaders and that’s why the Conservatives will have a stonking big majority. The use of manifestos is that they provide a government with a get-out-of-jail card which means that policies in them cannot be vetoed by the ever more important House of Lords – ironically the only effective opposition we have to the growing one party state that is Britain.

So on the face of it, the industry has little to worry about from GE2017, but my forecast still stands: the perennial occurrences of anti-gambling moral panics will continue and undoubtedly the online industry will be next. So start lobbying your new Tory MP.

Steve Donoughue has been a management consultant specialising in the business strategy and politics of the gambling industry for the last twenty years. Steve is the secretariat of the UK Parliamentary All Party Betting & Gaming Group, a part-time PhD student at the University of Westminster where he is researching the history of the Gambling Act 2005 and in 2011/12 he was Special Adviser to the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee inquiry into gambling. Further details about Steve can be found at his website www.gamblingconsultant.co.uk