Online Gambling Donates to U.K.Labour Party

Published: Monday, August 31, 2009 Online-Casinos.com

Peter Coates made a very sizable donation to the U.K.Labour Party coffers after online casinos, bookmakers and betting websites were permitted to advertise their products on TV. Mr. Coates, who owns football club Stoke City, gave most of the money to the party as ministers in parliament pushed ahead with proposals to free up the gaming industry. The gambling tycoon has been accused of paying a £100,000 'thank you' after his firm benefited from the controversial decision to relax the betting laws.

Mr.Coates who is a director of the web betting firm Bet365 has donated over £400,000 in the last five years. His business is said to be worth an estimated £275million that's £100million more than it was worth last year. The gentleman has always strongly maintained that he is a lifelong Labour supporter and was not trying to influence the political representatives.

The Electoral Commission, which monitors donations to political parties, made the information public. The Daily Mail broke the story, causing just a bit of uproar from anti- gambling sectors. It also reported that Hillside (New Media), the company behind Bet365, made the donation to Labour in June. Back in 2007, Labour accepted a donation of 150,000,GBP from Bet365 just a few short weeks before Gordon Brown's government scuttled plans for a mega casino in Manchester, the Daily Mail reported.

Mr Coates, built his business empire after starting out at football grounds by providing food also donated £50,000 in June of 2004 and another £100,000 in December of 2005 as the Government's proposals for a more relaxed approach to gambling were starting to take shape.

The LibDem culture spokesman, in the house, Don Foster, said, given the 'highly addictive nature of online betting' that Bet365 should make a priority of giving money to fund research and treatment for problem gamblers rather than supporting Labour.