Category Archives: Gambling

Call to ban gambling sponsors from UK sport as hidden harms are revealed

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Eleven Premier League teams start season with major bookmaker backing as industry watchdog report says stats can ‘mask’ scale of problem betting

Official figures on rates of problem gambling in Britain – which have been put as low as 0.3% – can “mask” the scale of harms by including people who never bet, a report published by the industry regulator has warned.

Various surveys suggest a problem gambling rate in Britain in a range of between 0.3% to 2.5%. But in the new report that figure rose sharply when non-gamblers were excluded – and was even higher among those who gambled on online casinos.

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PM accuses Dutton of pulling Liberals further to the right; jail sentence for second Blockade Australia protester – as it happened

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Married couple allegedly intended to hand defence force material to Russia, AFP chief says

Reece Kershaw says the AFP arrested the pair – a married couple – yesterday morning at their Everton Park home in Brisbane.

The counter foreign interference taskforce, which includes AFP, Asio and other commonwealth partners, has dedicated significant resources and capability to Operation Bergazada.

The AFP will allege the individuals worked together to access Australian defence force material that related to Australia’s national security interests.

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Election betting scandal revealed the niche market of political gambling in UK

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Though the betting often interests few outside Westminster, leaders must be clear on where opportunity for impropriety really lies

Until the past few weeks, online casinos and bookmakers have made handy villains for an under-pressure government.

Ministers could legitimately claim to be cleaning up Labour’s mess with reforms that partially roll back the permissive regulatory regime ushered in under Tony Blair.

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Sunak cites ‘confidential’ inquiry as he refuses to answer questions over aide and election date bet – live

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PM again declines to say whether he told Craig Williams in advance about his decision to hold the election in July

Rishi Sunak is returning to the campaign trail on Thursday, PA reports, after a two-day hiatus for the Emperor and Empress of Japan’s state visit and preparations for the final head-to-head debate with Sir Keir Starmer.

With one week to go until polling day, the deepening gambling scandal is still likely to feature heavily when he faces the media during a tour of the East Midlands and Yorkshire.

He is expected to visit a factory in Derbyshire and hold an evening campaign event in Leeds.

Keir Starmer accused Rishi Sunak of using transgender issues “as a political football to divide people” during their head-to-head debate on Wednesday.

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Sunak and Starmer clash over tax, borders and Brexit deal in final head-to-head before polling day – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read our full report on this debate here

YouGov will have a snap poll on who won the debate, with the results available minutes after it finishes.

This is what Labour is putting out ahead of the debate, in a stateement from Pat McFadden, the national campaign coordinator.

Tonight, the British people will witness the choice at this election: five more years of chaos with Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives or change with Keir Starmer and Labour.

On 4 July, the British people will have the chance to vote for change. To stop the chaos, turn the page and start to rebuild our country with Keir Starmer and a changed Labour party.

Tonight, Keir Starmer has the opportunity to announce loud and clear to the British public what his intentions are.

Throughout this campaign we have challenged the Labour party, time and time again, to come clean on their plans for taxes. Time and time again they have declined to do so.

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Met police to take bigger role in investigating election betting scandal

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A number of political figures have been accused of placing suspicious bets in the lead-up to the election

The Metropolitan police are to take an expanded role in investigating the criminal allegations triggered by the Westminster betting scandal, which is continuing to overshadow the election campaign.

Sources confirmed that talks between the Gambling Commission, which has been investigating multiple suspicious bets on the election date, and Scotland Yard have been continuing for days.

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UK general election live: Labour suspends candidate Kevin Craig over Gambling Commission probe

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Party says it acted after being contacted by the regulator about the candidate for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich

All along the course of the Thames, turning north, meandering south, passing through locks, historic landmarks, Richmond and Kew, swelling beneath the House of Commons with the turning tide, and on to Docklands and beyond – concern for the health of the Thames has led many other ordinary people, who live, work or play on the water, to take up the fight for the health of the river.

The last 15 years of decline in rivers suggests they have much to do. In 2009, a year before the Conservatives first took power in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, a quarter of English rivers were judged as being of good ecological standard, a marker which examines the flow, habitat and biological quality; by 2022 not one river was in a healthy state.

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Sunak defends decision not to take immediate action against Tories in betting scandal – as it happened

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Prime minister faces claim Tories are ‘stealing the candlesticks’ on the way out of government

After a passage in his speech attack Labour on familiar grounds, Rishi Sunak also hit out at Reform UK.

[Reform UK] are not on the side of who you think they are.

Reform are standing candidates here in Scotland that are pro independence and anti monarchy.

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Betting scandal as bad for Tories as Partygate, says Michael Gove

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‘It looks like one rule for them and one rule for us,’ the levelling up, housing and communities secretary suggests

The election betting row is as damaging to the Conservatives as the Partygate scandal, Michael Gove has said.

The levelling up, housing and communities secretary was speaking after revelations in the Guardian about a wagers allegedly placed on the date of the general election just before it was announced by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

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Starmer says he would not let SNP hold new independence referendum or lift veto on gender recognition bill – as it happened

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Labour leader says he would refuse to participate in negotiations for another independence referendum if he is elected PM

Speaking of Nigel Farage: the Reform UK leader has praised the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate for being an “important voice” for the emasculated and giving boys “perhaps a bit of confidence at school” in online interviews that appear to be aimed at young men over the past year.

The Guardian’s Rowena Mason and Ben Quinn report:

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Labor under pressure from within to act on gambling reform as one-year anniversary of landmark report nears

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Exclusive: Discontent growing among advocates, crossbenchers and Labor MPs over delay in implementing 31 recommendations, including advertising ban

Crossbenchers, gambling harm advocates and even some inside Labor are demanding the Albanese government speed up moves towards banning gambling advertisements, as pressure mounts on Labor to act.

Next week marks one year since Peta Murphy’s landmark gambling report was delivered, and a key Labor MP is planning to “urge” the government to respond soon. Discontent is growing over the government’s failure to respond to its 31 recommendations, including a ban on all advertising for online gambling.

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Tories face new questions over Sunak aide who placed bet on July election

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Labour has asked what role Craig Williams played in election date discussions and when party knew about bet

The Conservative party is facing new questions over the role Rishi Sunak’s closest parliamentary aide played in pre-election discussions before he placed a bet on the poll date days before it was announced.

Labour has written to Richard Holden, the Tory party chair, demanding more answers on the scandal that has further marred the party’s bruised election campaign.

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Bookmakers told to find all substantial bets on July poll after Sunak aide’s ‘flutter’

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Craig Williams’s £100 bet prompted inquiry by the Gambling Commission and fury within Conservatives

Bookmakers have been asked by the Gambling Commission to trawl through all substantial bets placed on a July election after one of Rishi Sunak’s closest aides put a wager on the poll date just days before it was announced.

The prime minister said he was “disappointed” with the behaviour of Craig Williams, which was revealed in the Guardian, but neither would be drawn on whether they had discussed the date of the election prior to the bet being placed.

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Owner of UK national lottery operator to sever ties with Gazprom

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Allwyn parent company says deal to buy 3% stake in Czech gas facility will cut final link with Kremlin-controlled energy firm

The billionaire owner of Allwyn, the company that runs the national lottery, will sever his last remaining ties with Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom by the end of June, more than two years after winning the UK’s largest public sector contract.

The Czech tycoon Karel Komárek, who owns Allwyn via his Switzerland-based holding company KKCG, has faced scrutiny over his links to Russia since wresting control of the 10-year licence to operate the lottery from Camelot in 2022.

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Shohei Ohtani interpreter to plead guilty to stealing millions from MLB star

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  • Ippei Mizuhara faces long jail sentence after admission
  • Plea deal will absolve Ohtani of any wrongdoing

Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani, will face up to 33 years in jail when he pleads guilty to stealing millions of dollars from his former friend.

Mizuhara has admitted to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return. As well as a length jail term, he must also pay $16,975,010 in restitution to Victim A, assumed to be Ohtani. Mizuhara will enter his guilty plea in the coming weeks and is set to be arraigned on 14 May, prosecutors said.

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Senator Tammy Tyrrell quits Jacqui Lambie’s party to sit as independent – as it happened

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Local MP says government ‘had to do something’ about ‘weeks of unrest’ in Alice Springs

MP for Lingiari, Marion Scrymgour, says the government “had to do something” when asked if a youth curfew, imposed for Alice Springs from last night, was necessary.

That’s culminated in some of the riotous behaviours that we’ve seen played out in the streets of Alice Springs, which over a number of weeks, has gotten increasingly worse. The government had to do something.

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MLB star Shohei Ohtani’s translator fired after allegations of ‘massive theft’

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  • Ippei Mizuhara admits to have run up gambling debts
  • Ohtani is world’s most famous baseball player

The interpreter for Shohei Ohtani, the biggest star in baseball and one of the most famous people in Japan, has been fired after lawyers for the player said there had been a “massive theft” from the slugger’s account.

ESPN reported that several sources said Ippei Mizuhara had run up large debts to a Californian bookmaker. Initially a spokesperson for the player said Ohtani had transferred $4.5m to cover Mizuhara’s debts. But when ESPN asked further questions, the spokesperson backed away from their claim and said Ohtani’s lawyers would soon make a statement.

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Ads for gambling company forced to leave Australia digitally imposed on overseas A-Leagues broadcasts

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Digital ads for 8XBet inserted into matches played by clubs that rejected money from gambling companies

An offshore gambling company that breached Australian law and was forced to withdraw from the country has paid the national football league to promote it overseas.

The Australian Professional Leagues has digitally imposed ads for the gambling company, 8XBet, on to international broadcasts of A-Leagues matches. The company’s logo can be seen in 10 locations simultaneously during some games.

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National Lottery operator had borrowed millions from Kremlin-owned banks

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Exclusive: Syndicate agreed to lend up to €640m to Allwyn in 2020, two years before contract awarded

The company behind the national lottery was borrowing millions from Kremlin-owned banks when it won the UK’s largest public-sector contract, the Guardian can reveal.

Russia’s two largest lenders, VTB and Sberbank, were part of a syndicate that agreed to lend up to €640m (£545m) to Allwyn in 2020, two years before the pan-European gaming specialist was named the “preferred bidder” for the £6.5bn lottery contract.

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Indigenous leader accuses NT government of ‘clear conflict of interest’ with online gambling industry

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Exclusive: Yingiya Mark Guyula says companies are ‘making big money’ off some of the poorest in the community

An Indigenous leader and independent MP has accused the Northern Territory government of having “a clear conflict of interest” with the $50bn online gambling industry and of ignoring First Nations health and advocacy groups.

Yingiya Mark Guyula, a Liya-dhälinymirr Djambarrpuyngu man, said online gambling was an increasing problem in remote areas. He accused some companies of “making big money off some of the poorest people in our communities”.

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