Question for UK Members and Operators

[Professor]

Ok excuse my political ignorance as a yank, but can you give me your oppinion of the change in Prime Minister?

Mr. Brown was identified as a more liberal leaning administrator where the new PM Mr. Cameron is identifed as a Conservative (shudders).

What could this mean for our industry and the UK Market? Any changes likely or are their bigger fish to fry then gaming legislation?

It would seem Mr. Brown's government was rather beneficial to online gaming on the whole. As a Conservative will Mr Cameron continue in that direction or can we expect change?

[TheGooner]

Don't get confused with labels - and don't think that you can automatically translate them from one continent to the other.

The "Conservative" party is traditionally right-wing and business orientated. Typically, the Conservatives (or Torys) are considered good for business.

Whereas the "Labour" party of Gordon Brown is considered left-wing, legislative, high taxing, and the party of the "people".

The "Liberal Democrats" are tradtional 3rd party, and typically considered a wasted vote (or protest vote) without any real chance of power. In this election campaign - the strong showing of leader Nick Clegg in debates has changed a bit with the Lib-Dems getting 21% of the total vote - and holding the balance of power.

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It's important to note that Labour had already ruled for 3 terms, and during the last term Gordon Brown was appointed Prime Minister after Tony Blair stepped down. Labour's time was up (4 term governments are very rare now) - and as a figurehead Brown was simply far to unpopular with the public for Labour to survive.

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The new "Conservative" PM is David Cameron who is the youngest prime minister since 1812.

The "Liberal Democrat" leader Nick Clegg will be deputy prime minister and that there are four other Lib Dem cabinet ministers.

Again the labels are just party names - this government will be the first coalition government in the UK in 70 years - and will be a central/right leaning coalition.

[RayUK]

OK just my thoughts on it all, and this is a very personal view (so I might get flamed for it).

It was really Tony Blair that was the pro-gambling PM during Labour's term in office. Once Gordon Brown took over that was reversed, he cancelled the Manchester super casino, and cancelled most of the other new casinos that were going to be opened. He put the 50% casino tax on casinos, the 20% bingo tax (which helped shut down a lot of bingo halls along with the smoking ban). Recently the gambling commission looks like it was intent on reversing the really quite good white list system and putting in a system which would seriously charge operators if they wanted to offer online gambling to the UK.

Labour were very authoritarian and were getting more so with all sorts of things they 'disapproved of' being banned, and gambling wasn't out of their sights.

The Tories have a libertarian wing as well as an authoritarian one. The former would probably approve of an open gambling market, offering choice to the consumer with minimal government interference. The latter would probably want to be as bad as Labour were recently, if not more so, so it depends who gets the upper hand and who the minister is for 'culture and sport' which, I think, gambling comes under.

The LibDems are similarly winged (as it were) with the old Liberals being liberal in the 'classic liberal' sense (i.e. not the sense that the word is used in the US) and more akin to the modern libertarians. These are the 'orange bookers' (named after an orange book setting out free market ideas). The other party that went into the LibDems are the old SDP (Social Democratic Party) and they split off from labour, and are fairly big state control everything in outlook. The orange bookers fit quite well with the libertarian part of the Tories, and if they get on in this new coalition we could see some fairly free market stuff come out of it.

So, basically, it depends who gets the upper hand - free market ideas, or big state interventionism. With a free market perspective it ought to bode well for gambling. Big state interventionists tend to want to shut down private competition to state monopoly gambling (e.g. the National Lottery) under the guise of 'protecting the vulnerable'.

I think they will have their plate full trying to stop the UK going the way of Greece and massively defaulting into economic chaos. So with luck gambling might escape too much attention. Or they might think that taxing it to kingdom come is a nice little earner to help with the debt/deficit problem.

[RayUK]

Apparently Theresa May has been made Home Secretary. Judging from her voting record:

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Theresa_May

(click on 'policy comparisons' it is in alphabetical order so look for gambling)

she is very against gambling so that doesn't bode well.

[Professor]

Apparently Theresa May has been made Home Secretary. Judging from her voting record:

http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Theresa_May

(click on 'policy comparisons' it is in alphabetical order so look for gambling)

she is very against gambling so that doesn't bode well.

Oh no, thats not good.

[tryme]

Theresa May's personal voting record is irrelevant really to the issue of online gambling.

Online gambling has always been legal in the UK and that is very, very unlikely to change. The change in government is not going to mean a clamp down on internet gambling and, in fact, the Conservative Party are more, rather than less, likely to revisit the 'super casino' thing in a positive light.

English Conservatives are free marketeers and not bogged down with the religious right agendas of their American counterparts. Gambling may even become a bigger industry under a Tory-Lib/Dem coalition as part of the reason Gordon Brown's Labour government was troubled by it is because there were very many Scottish Presbyterians influencing policy.

Basically, Prof...you're good to go.

[casinogod]

I dont think it will make much difference at all. If anything it will be a good thing, Labour generally like to add regulation as well as taxes on businesses and anyone who has worked hard to earn a high level of income.

Whilst conservatives 'generally' do no penalise people who have worked hard and tend to lean more towards less regulation and red tape making business easier alround.

The thing to remember though is the UK economy is in a bad state so it is unlikly that the conservatives would be able to reverse any of Labours high taxes until the countries debt has been reduced which will take a long time.

[specialagent08]

the UK is indeed in a very bad financial state and depts seem to be growing etc! Every year the UK gambling industry generates billions of pounds....... which in short does make us a small gold mine!!!

I hope we make it though with little effect, however I can see the gambling industry being effected in one way or another

[Anthony]

Theresa May's personal voting record is irrelevant really to the issue of online gambling.

Online gambling has always been legal in the UK and that is very, very unlikely to change. The change in government is not going to mean a clamp down on internet gambling and, in fact, the Conservative Party are more, rather than less, likely to revisit the 'super casino' thing in a positive light.

English Conservatives are free marketeers and not bogged down with the religious right agendas of their American counterparts. Gambling may even become a bigger industry under a Tory-Lib/Dem coalition as part of the reason Gordon Brown's Labour government was troubled by it is because there were very many Scottish Presbyterians influencing policy.

Basically, Prof...you're good to go.

I hope you're correct.
I just don't see them doing anything to jeopardize the tax revenue coming in.

[Professor]

Lets hope they have more sense than the US about that. With the deficit we have you would think legalization and taxation would be high on the list of priorities here too.

[Virtual Marketing]

There are additional markets to gat the impact, else than the traditional gambling, markets like the online rummy games and the Lottery guide.
Also, what about the UK home based sports betting ?