Controversy over UK gambling lobby group connections

Media reports have raised concerns over the connections with the Gamblers Consumer Forum.

UK.- Concerns have been raised in British media about links between a lobby group, the Gamblers Consumer Forum, and Steven Donoughue, a gambling industry consultant and former secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Betting & Gaming Group.

The Gamblers Consumer Forum (GCF), which bills itself as the “voice of gamblers” on its website, has campaigned against proposals for new affordability checks in the UK government’s gambling white paper. However, the Guardian has reported that the group is linked to people connected to the gambling industry.

The newspaper reported that data on the GCF website says it is run by Andrew Woodman, a parliamentary assistant to Andrew Bridgen, an MP who was kicked out of the ruling Conservative Party for anti-vaccination views, and Abbie MacGregor, a PhD student, former Conservative council candidate and former parliamentary researcher for two MPs.

However, the Guardian checked Companies House records and found that AAS Communications, the company running GCF, is co-owned with Donoughue. The company was established in May, two months before the GCF launched and the same month that Donoughue announced the disbandment of the All-Party Parliamentary Betting & Gaming Group, of which he had been secretary for 15 years.

At the time of the disbandment, Donoughue had said that individual members of the group would continue to advocate for gambling individually, replacing the APPG with an “informal network of those interested in the British gambling industry”. He said they would “hopefully organise ad hoc meetings and discussions outside the formal Parliamentary All Party Group structure”.

The Guardian said Donoughue declined to comment on his involvement in the GCF. On its website, the GCF says it aimed to “speak to parliamentarians, government departments and various think tanks and groups with an interest in gambling”. It pledged to “counter misinformation” about gambling addiction and to “support addicts with evidence-based science”.

Experts on gambling harm have raised concerns over a false claim made on the GCF website stating that “99.8% of British adults gamble without an issue”. They said the claim was “plainly false” since only around 50 per cent of British adults gamble at all.

Dr Heather Wardle, professor of gambling research and policy at the University of Glasgow, told The Guardian: “To claim that 99.8% of people gamble without issue is misleading. It is a misinterpretation that is dangerous because it underestimates the harms associated with gambling and with specific types of gambling.”

A spokesperson for GCF told The Guardian it would change the wording and defended its decision not to include “sub-clinical” definitions of gambling risk.

The controversy shows the continued challenges and trust issues that the industry faces in engaging with and communicating its messages with politics and the public. Previously, lobby groups with overt links to the gambling sector have caused controversy in the UK. Entain was accused of astroturfing when it launched the Entain Players’ Panel in 2021 with the aim of creating the image of a grassroots campaign.