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Nick Hawkins column
Is Christmas Cheer for the Gambling Sector drowned out by Doom and Gloom – or are there any Fairy Godmothers out there anywhere? Former UK Shadow Gambling Minister Nick Hawkins sorts the wheat from the chaff in his bi-monthly column…
Although I’m writing this pre-Christmas, to be read post-, I don’t somehow think, in the absence of a world-wide universal fairy Godmother, the economy in general or for the gaming sector in particular will look much better in January than it does in mid-December. However, we can have some New Year Wishes… : that the UK Prime Minister, “the great clunking fist”, and his minions, realise that tinkering with VAT at the margins can actually cause more problems for business and industry than it solves, and that getting on with announcements which have been promised to industry on specific much-needed relief, would be better – the announcement of an increase in Stakes and Prizes for Category C machines under UK law is now badly overdue as I write.
The Government also should be taking steps to assert our sovereignty as against the EU on small but important matters for this industry, too: I’m delighted that finally we can now be allowed, if we wish, to have Union Jack stickers on car number plates, and keep the inch, the ounce and (especially for me, as a CAMRA real ale enthusiast and lover of nice pubs) the pint – but why are changes on the technical side of stakes and prizes implementation, proposed to be delayed, for Brussels EC Eurocrats to review – when they were never involved before? “Hands off our gaming machines” may not be as sexy a slogan for the media as fruit and veg traders in markets, the so-called “Metric Martyrs”, like Steve Thoburn, but it still matters to a significant number of UK businesses.
While we’re at it, why can’t the UK Government see that “we’ll only have two implementation dates a year, October and April for all regulations” is a totally unhelpful stance if it is inflexible – it is not, as they claimed “helpful to industry to have clarity”, if the industry needs speed. We have all the clarity we need on how stark the problems are!
On a wider front, the UK Government now looks particularly foolish on the Tote – where, the Government turned down a great deal put forward from Tote Management and now, as predicted by this Column, can’t get a deal at all (another broken promise…) – but at least racing will survive any Recession. The super-rich will still breed, own and train horses and we mug punters will still back them. I look forward to Boxing Day at Kempton Park – had a good day there, last year (thanks to Exotic Dancer – always happy to back a good horse with a great name…)
In other fields:
Casinos will probably have a tough time except at the very top of the market in the UK, I fear.
Internet Gaming will continue to grow, in my view, across the world-but perhaps at a slower rate (especially among UK players as unemployment rises inexorably to three million and beyond….)
The most interesting matter of all, world-wide will be “how quickly will the Obama Presidency turn its attention to liberalising gaming in the US and being less protectionist?” I suspect it will be a second year issue, not a first-year issue – there are so many huge financial issues to cover, never mind the “War on Terror”, that gambling is a small, low-place on the agenda, item. However – we know this President-elect is definitely not anti-Gambling, and in the House of Representatives and the Senate the Democrats who favour licensing not Prohibition are now stronger – so the Religious Right can largely be muzzled or by-passed, I hope. Actually, on the US Presidency, gambling couldn’t lose, as an industry – as John McCain was known publicly to gamble – but he would have had more issues with the ‘antis’ in his Party, had he won.
Though we’ll be well into 2009 by the time you are reading this, have a Happy Gambling New Year!
