UK GAMING
Elections can be a problem…
B
Nick Hawkins is a Barrister specialising in Gambling and Leisure law. In his 13 years in Parliament previously, he held roles in Government and Opposition, including Shadow Solicitor-General and Shadow Sports Minister. He is now Legal Director for a gaming company.
y the time you are reading the published version of this, we will all know who has won the UK General Election (or if there hasn’t been an outright winner). As I’m writing it, we
are just under two weeks out from Polling Day and according to almost all Opinion Polls, each of the three parties has about one-third of the electorate’s declared voting intentions – a recipe for a really messy Parliament with no overall control. Whoever has formed a Government, quite possibly a Minority Government trying to go from vote to vote with no formal alliance or coalition, will then probably need to ask Her Majesty to dissolve Parliament again in the Autumn and have a second Election in the year – (a similar situation to the Elections of February and October 1974 which I remember very well indeed). If this is the result, a so-called “hung
Parliament”, it will probably be very bad for the UK Economy internationally, as it will be months of continuing uncertainty – which ‘the markets’ hate. It will make recovery from recession for the UK much more difficult, and slower. This will be bad news for all industries, and especially for the beleaguered gambling industry – and the leisure sector generally – the misguided policies of the previous Government having caused mayhem in the licensed trade with up to 50 pubs a week closing down – most probably never to reopen, alas. Even with my political background, I would have to say, better a decisive loss for my old party, (though I’d much prefer a decisive win, that now looks unlikely) than this damaging uncertainty. Having said that, if we can get rid of some people, at least, from the old regime, that would be good. Only a couple of weeks back I read a Labour MP solemnly claiming that “all the pub closures have nothing to do with the Labour Government’s smoking ban…” ! I sometimes wonder what planet in a parallel universe these people are living on – do they never ever talk to or listen to, their constituents, including publicans, or pub customers? In my 13 years, I thought that was part of my job – but then in addition to all the work I did on gambling, I was one of the co-founders, (and Joint Treasurer till the day I left) of the Parliamentary All-Party Beer Group! We do desperately need to get back both some
realism, and some decisiveness, in Government decision-making, on gambling and on much else – but if this next Parliament is “hung” (when many
12 MAY 2010
Former UK Shadow Gambling Minister Nick Hawkins sorts the wheat from the chaff in his bi- monthly column
people felt most occupants of the last one “deserved to be hanged”!) – there’s precious little chance of that. I do hope I end up being proved wrong by “events…” Harold Macmillan, when Prime Minister, was once asked by a young Tory MP of that time what was the biggest problem in Politics-his answer was: “Events, dear boy, events”! In the meantime, just before the Election was called, one of the most inadequate consultation documents I or may others have ever seen, on Remote Gambling was put out, (without, apparently, any rigour in the drafting) by the Department for Culture Media and Sport (or ‘Department for Creatures of Muddle and Spoilsports’ , as some have re-christened it). The day before writing this column I was with some very senior industry figures, discussing this “effort”. A former senior civil servant pointed out he’d
never seen a consultation which purported to analyse its “impact” with no figures at all. We suspected this was in the unseemly and unnecessary rush to get something out before the Election; DCMS asked the Treasury for figures, and the Treasury just said, in effect: “we’re too busy with far more important recession work to bother with this rubbish from a minor Department like DCMS, don’t waste our time”, but the DCMS Ministers insisted on putting it out anyway, despite the lack of figures. For the rest, a considered view of some very senior people was that some of the consultation questions posed were “frankly, bonkers” and displayed a very worrying lack of understanding of the industry and how it operates worldwide. Does this have a wider significance? You bet – buried in this Consultation are questions on land- based gaming which shouldn’t be there in a document supposedly on “remote” – so readers, please don’t ignore this, get it out and respond. Finally, two other matters – is anyone out there thinking of setting up a UK and European equivalent of Melanie Brenner’s great lobby group “Poker Voters of America”? Please do so… And on racing, I should refer as I often do to a facinating Cheltenham – great for the bookies, and great if you had four successes, as I was lucky enough to do on Day 1, of which Binocular was the best. A surprise Gold Cup winner – which I didn’t predict – and for me a disappointing Grand National; my four picks finished 12th, 13th and were pulled up at fences 24 and 26 respectively! The one to watch, however, for the big one later in the year, I reckon is St. Nicholas Abbey… You read it here first!
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