## UK General Election: Tory Party – iGB
This week, iGamingBusiness.com delves into the gambling pledges of the main political groups in the UK. We’ve spoken with a panel of industry professionals to collect perspectives on campaign pledges that directly target gambling or could affect the industry. We’ll begin this three-part series with the Conservative Party’s policies.
**Home > Casinos & Gaming > UK General Election: Tory Party**
**UK General Election: Tory Party**
This week, iGamingBusiness.com will examine the gambling promises of the major political parties in the UK. We’ve spoken with a panel of industry experts to gather insights on campaign promises that directly target gambling or could impact the sector. We’ll start this three-part series with the Conservative Party’s policies.
This is not a voting guide – there are many factors that will determine who each person supports, far beyond gambling. iGB will not take a stance on which party should win a majority on December 12th, but aims to provide insights into key experts and prominent figures’ views on each party’s policies.
**The Party’s Platform States:**
**Gambling Rules**
Given the rapid evolution of the online world, gambling laws are increasingly like outdated laws in a digital age.
Well examine it thoroughly, with a specific emphasis on addressing loot boxes and credit card misuse.
We’ll continue to take action to combat gambling addiction.
We’ll revamp business practices.
We’ll lessen the tax load on companies by decreasing business taxes. This will be achieved through a comprehensive review of the system. As an initial step, we’ll further lower business rates for retail establishments and extend discounts to grassroots music venues, small movie theaters, and pubs. This signifies safeguarding your local shopping areas and communities from excessive tax increases and maintaining the vitality of town centers.
Our startup visa, and our new regulations for those with exceptional talent, will ensure that we can attract future entrepreneurs who wish to establish businesses here.
Thriving high streets: we’ll cut taxes for small retail businesses and local music venues, pubs, and cinemas.
Our plans to modernize infrastructure will make it easier for businesses to operate – transporting goods nationwide and connecting with customers globally through gigabit broadband. Our £3 billion National Skills Fund, alongside other substantial investments in skills and training, and our reforms to high-skilled immigration, will guarantee that businesses can locate and employ the personnel they require.
However, we also aim to address other everyday hurdles they encounter.
We will offer more assistance in the form of small business employment subsidies – a tax reduction for half a million small enterprises.
We will back startups and small businesses through government purchasing and pledge to make prompt payments. We will also take a tougher stance on late payments and give the Small Business Commissioner more authority to aid small businesses that are being taken advantage of by large partners.
Some measures have already been successful, but need to be taken further – such as the R&D tax credit. We will increase the tax credit percentage to 13% and redefine R&D so that crucial investments in productivity and innovation, such as cloud computing and data, can also be encouraged.
We must also acknowledge that some measures have not fully achieved their objectives. Therefore, we will review and reform the entrepreneur tax cut.
How iGB reported the manifesto launch.
What industry insiders say:
General opinion on the manifesto
Duncan Garvie, thePOGG (DG): The Conservative manifesto makes very little commitment to the gambling market. While they do express dissatisfaction with the 2005 Gambling Act, they only state that the act will be “reviewed” and highlight two areas of focus that the Gambling Commission is already actively addressing.
These commitments are unlikely to cause much of a stir and may not necessitate any changes that haven’t already been made.
Daniel Wootton, Sirius Partners (DW): The Tories have a feeling they’re lagging behind (having been in power since 2010, they’ve had ample time to address gambling policy), and they’re attempting to outdo the competition.
The party has agreed to examine gambling regulations, with their platform emphasizing loot boxes and credit card payments (the latter is currently being reviewed by the Gambling Commission, and is likely to become a done deal).
Julian Buhagiar, RB Capital (JB): Ironically, the Conservatives’ position on gambling is a carbon copy of some recent Nordic platforms. There’s a (partially valid) connection to loot boxes and the murky edges of regulated gambling, so expect further penalties and increased gambling taxes. However, a few more public mergers and the deficit in gambling revenue starts to become clear.
Response to Specific Aspects of Gambling
JB (as shown below): While the Blues are currently nothing more than some red antimatter particles, they’ve hired better consultants, and most of their big sponsors sit on the boards of some major gambling firms.
So, while the short-term outlook will continue to embrace populist isolationist rhetoric, expect pressure from backbenchers to shift towards remote gambling legislation in the medium term.
To put it another way, reduce corporate levies, and – as if by divine justice, struggling to swallow a mug of mulled wine at La Belle Maraichere while Farage watches – provide more advantageous tax regulations for skilled immigrant workers in the finance, business, and gaming sectors.
Over the next ten years, Britain will progressively regain the gambling companies lost in the grand Gibraltar departure, coinciding with the gradual, steady decline of the Maltese gambling industry following its recent ethical crisis. In this manner, Britain itself will become a remote gambling powerhouse, attracting near-shore American gambling giants who find Delaware too close and the Cayman Islands too risky.
DG: Having said that, while the Conservatives are essentially advocating for the current state of affairs in their direct policies on gambling, they are the only party that still actively considers a no-deal Brexit a feasible option. If Brexit results in the economic hardship that many experts predict it will, maintaining the current state of affairs in policy terms could still lead to a greater change in the financial outcomes for operators than those parties advocating for more significant policy changes.
DW: The most crucial aspect here is not so much what was stated (which is largely derived), but who stated it. The fact that Health Secretary Matt Hancock, rather than the DCMS, led this initiative should be a cause for serious worry.
An increasing number of advocacy organizations are striving to move gambling regulations from the domain of culture to the sphere of health. Should this transpire, we could potentially find ourselves on a trajectory towards prohibition (or something remarkably similar).
Primary image: Wikimedia Commons
The second installment examines the Labour party platform.
The third section delves into the policies of the Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats.
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