Gambling in politics: How widespread is it?

The gambling row that has engulfed the Conservative Party in the run-up to the General Election deepened this week after a Cabinet minister admitted to placing bets on the date of the General Election.

Scotland Secretary Alister Jack denied having broken any rules but said he put three wagers on the timing of the July 4 poll, becoming the latest of seven politicians and officials to get drawn in to the controversy.

Rishi Sunak will face further pressure over the revelation, which comes after he caved to mounting calls from within the Tory Party to withdraw support for two parliamentary candidates facing a Gambling Commission investigation.

But he isn’t the only leader to come under pressure to address the thorny issue of gambling in politics.

Labour was also dragged into the row on Tuesday, with the party suspending its candidate Kevin Craig after it emerged he had bet that he would lose to the Tories in the contest for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich.

Craig admitted making a “stupid error of judgment” by placing a wager on the Tories defeating him in the constituency of Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, which the rival party won by a majority of 23,391 in 2019.

He claimed he had done so because he thought he would “never win this seat” and had been planning to give any winnings to local charities.

The controversies have raised questions over how widespread gambling is within politics, with Lewis Goodall posting that candidates often bet on themselves to lose.

ITV’s Robert Peston, likewise, says Craig is unlikely to be the last parliamentary candidate to come under scrutiny.

“If the Gambling Commission now requests that data from the betting companies, this could turn into a scandal on the scale of the MPs’ expenses scandal,” Peston notes, adding that it “won’t just be Tory MPs tarnished”.

“I am told Labour, Lib Dem and Reform MPs all engage in this kind of punt”, he added, suggesting that we could be scratching the tip of the iceberg.

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.