‘I’m not a dodgy donor – I have no commercial interest in my campaign to reform gambling’

Earlier this month, a gambling trade publication accused me of carrying out a “scattergun attack on industry to lobby the new Prime Minister”. It referred to an opinion piece I had written in Politics Home the month before on how gambling reform is the best policy if Andy Burnham wants to see a growing economy.

The publication, Coinslot, is aligned with the slot machine sector and its trade body, the British Amusements and Catering Trades Association (Bacta), also described Burnham as a religious prohibitionist in the article. 

It claimed that listening to me might entangle Burnham in a moralistic move, reminding the PM to govern for the country, not the party, and not his donors. At the time of writing, I have not donated to Labour since the 2024 general election.

Coinslot is free to lobby the Prime Minister in the financial self-interest of its advertisers and subscribers. However, it questions my “lobbying” despite my having no commercial interest whatsoever. The article mentioned my name ten times, but I was not offered any right of reply. 

READ MORE: Andy Burnham: ‘The rewiring of Britain has begun’

When I was campaigning to reduce the stakes of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) in bookmakers from 2013 to 2018, Coinslot and Bacta were actually supporters. Although I never accepted funding from others, I welcomed evidence from anyone willing to contribute. Bacta had commissioned a report from the National Economic Research Associates (NERA) on FOBT economics, but chose not to release it and gave it to me to use. It was cited and informed Parliamentary research on the impact of FOBTs

I later commissioned NERA independently who were able to demonstrate the economic drawbacks of electronic gambling, whether online or on machines. Low employment, weak supply chains, limited economic multipliers and VAT exemptions are all the downsides of growing online gambling and slot machines.

In their piece on me, Coinslot argues that “supporting growth for all regulated sectors is an obligation set out by the government”. This is simply not true. Tobacco is regulated, is the government obliged to grow that sector too? This might be news to various Health Secretaries over the years. 

Four days before the Makerfield by-election I was interviewed by Lewis Goodall on LBC. I explained that I could not support Starmer, but that I could support Burnham. I also spoke about how gambling minister Baroness Fiona Twycross, who seems committed to the concept of growing the gambling, was much less receptive to gambling reform than her predecessors.

The communications director of the gambling company Flutter, Steve Hawkes, shared a clip of the interview on X, writing: “When Labour anti-gambling donor branded the Gambling Minister “useless” and appeared to demand change.”

I am not in a position to demand anything. I am not anti-gambling. And I supported both Labour and the Liberal Democrats in 2024 after becoming disillusioned by the slow progress of the Conservative Gambling Act Review White Paper. It was a no-brainer for me to help increase the Labour majority by funding LibDems to take Tory seats. 

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I did describe the gambling minister as useless, as her position was effectively a continuation of the Tory White Paper.  But not all gambling ministers have been. Tory Tracy Crouch supported the FOBT stake reduction under the Theresa May government, and her resignation helped ensure it happened. That government correctly appreciated that constraining the most harmful gambling products would not harm economic growth. 

Meanwhile self-aggrandised ‘man of the people’, Nigel Farage extols the virtues of “fun” pursuits, with his by-election video for Clacton mentioning his campaigning to reduce taxes on slot machines with Bacta as one of the things he has done to benefit the Clacton community. 

Key Bacta members are the German company Merkur, and Novomatic from Austria. Here in the UK they operate well over 500 slot arcades known as Adult Gaming Centres (AGCs) between them. 

Mr Burnham described AGCs as socially harmful in a media interview within a week of taking office. He’s right. Research has found half of the UKs AGCs are clustered in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Last year, Merkur was fined £95,000 for not intervening when a cancer patient lost almost £2,000 in two days at a venue in Stockport. 

If Britain is Broke, then Brexit, offshoring and extractive electronic gambling have all played a role. They all need genuine reform, not Reform UK. We have a Prime Minister we can trust, who will be fair and open.

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