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Labour Party Subject to Criticism

It’s no secret that recently appointed Prime Minister Gordon Brown is towing a harder line than his predecessor in terms of gambling and online casino legislation. In fact, one of the first actions Brown took once in office was to halt the planned super-casino in Manchester. Beyond that, Brown’s administration is taking full control over the powers granted to certain departments in the 2005 Gambling Act. As of September 1, 2007, The United Kingdom has some of the most thoroughly developed online casinos regulations in the world. But with all of these restrictions, a recent donation of GBP 150,000 from an online betting company has some crying hypocrisy.

The UK’s current ruling Labour Party was in a serious financial situation when Gordon Brown stepped down as Prime Minister – in fact it was GBP 20 million in debt. A spokesperson for the Labour Party comments, "Our finances remain in a challenging position but the upturn [in fundraising] of recent months continues to be reflected in the figures from the Electoral Commission. Donations to the end of June 2007 show an increase of GBP 3.6 million on the same stage in 2006." This is the time period when the Party has begun to accept many private donations from millionaires, and apparently online casino betting sites.

An Independent newspaper in Britain broke the story that Bet365.com contributed a six figure sum to the Labour Party. It’s not that online casinos and shouldn’t and cannot donate money to the Party, but the issue lies in the fact that Brown is much less tolerant of gambling than the previous Prime Minister. A source for the newspaper commented on the situation, "It's a bit rich to have Gordon Brown taking the moral high ground over super-casinos while accepting this six-figure sum from an [online casino] betting company."

To supplement the financial deficit of the Labour Party it has called upon individual donors for the October election fund rather than other online casino companies. A few of the key donors include a GPB 500,000 donation from the Iranian millionaire Mahmoud Khayami. Other large donors (over GBP 250,000) include the Muslim Friends of Labour, Jon Aisbitt, Ronald Cohen, and Nigel Doughty.