Betting in itself has been corrupt for decades, but everyone still participates, broadcasters like SKY even endorse it lol, but MP's or something. Some people lose their house on betting or past loan companies like Wonga would help wtith roll over loans, to get round the system and football clubs would take advertising sponsorship from them. Rather than looking at MP's they need to look how much damage it does to society or those at the lower ends of it.
Everyone crying over MP's gambling, you really are all a bunch of hypocrites. Quite happy for it to destroy lives though.
I know, few MPs having a flutter over the date of the election. It's pretty common knowledge amongst everyone that Rishi Sunak and his personal advisors were the only people who had first hand knowledge of the election date. Now we are including MPs who bet that, for example, their mate/colleague was going to win their local election to be an MP. Is it "corruption" if the leader of the Scottish Labour Party bets that the Labour candidate running in Sommerset wins the race?
I would like to see a ban on betting advertising and all the game play incentives, but that's just a personal view - I accept it, because people accept it and enjoy playing it, so I have to mind my own business - so when I see people calling out MP's, well I just laugh, there's a bigger issue here in my eyes that has never been dealt with and media companies endorse it. The people that pretend to care often don't, it's just agendas behind it, like hating on the Tories, which is more important than someones life being ruined by gambling, righto....well I expect the MP's involved have had their prospects ruined as well now, so we can add that to the ongoing list of gambling consequences...but SKY will still endorse it.
I feel a bit for these Tory candidates, according to Rory Stewart, when he was inside the Tory party and a cabinet minister, big MPs like Grant Shapps often invited everyone to have a bet as a bit of fun. It was just seen as "something you do" now, younger MP candidates have joined in and they've been tossed under the bus. This all feels like they wanted to smack the Tories with another controversy and it's backfired and all the other parties have been found out.
I think gambling is overhyped personally. I also, sometimes, feel dirty from society for gambling when I’m minding my own business and not bothering anyone. It has a stigma attached to it which isn’t fair. Pretty much everyone I know who gambles doesn’t have a problem, at all. Few bets here and there. I know gambling causes problems. I’ve witnessed it. It can have a devastating impact on the individual and the closest people to them. There’s a feeling though that everyone who gambles is some sort of addict that is one bet away from destroying their lives. I don’t see similar sort of pressure put on people that go out for a pint. Alcohol is responsible for some terrible crimes in domestic relationships, addiction, fighting, it’s even linked to cancer, now. The sun comes out and people are encouraged to go for a pint. It makes you happy, it relaxes you, why not. Pop into the bookies for a little bet, though…
I've never gambled and never felt the need, but perhaps it's my evil Liberal agenda, I don't think I have a right to tell people what they do with their own money or free time as long as they are a well adjusted adult. Why should a normal person, not an addict, with a disposable income, not be allowed to bet on which horse finishes first? Same thing with marijuana, cigs. You want to get up, go outside a pub and have a cig? You want to go into a cafe designed for smoking weed and have a joint? Do it. Expensive authoritarian policies that don't work trying to control lives.
Pretty much this for me, I just mind my own when I see people doing things that are seen as not being healthy for the mind, body or soul. As long as they aren’t vulnerable people and fully in control of their actions, what they do is up to them. I go through stages of them all, probably because of the way I’m wired up. Rarely I’ll go through stages of drinking. I’ll smoke a little bit of cannabis at times although that’s very rare now. I gamble fairly regularly but even that I go through stages of not placing a bet for months. If that goes wrong it’s on me, I know the risks. I’m a grown man and would fully accept the consequences.
Thanks to Mick, I finally got a pay rise just before Christmas Had to fight for it, though. That’s why I’m in a union ffs.
We just got a payrise too thanks to the union Companies ultimately treat employees like cattle and we have to be a herd otherwise they'll slaughter us one by one. Just made that up and I think it sounds good
I don't bet, I think I've done it twice in my life, and I mind my own business if someone else wants to. But I do think it matters if you're in public office and you're doing it with insider knowledge especially if you're close to those in real power at the very top. It stinks of corruption and is the thin end of the wedge of the kind of mentality you saw with the PPE scandal, the Expenses scandal and the ****s who break the very rules they make like during Covid. We have to have certain standards in public service and especially as politicians. Not being funny but if I go out on the piss and at 1am decide to take a leak in a shop doorway and someone takes a photo, posts it on social media I'd be at serious risk of losing my job. No one would give a fck that others may or may not do it or get away with it, it's gross misconduct in my role. It's why I always carry an empty bottle. And wtf is Taggedy Waggedy ffs?
What I don't get right, when I was about 16/17 years old, I worked with someone who put bets on the horses most weeks, I remember a couple of times going in the bookie shop with him. He'd scribble some very little nonsense involving numbers on a scrap of paper, hand it to the cashier and we'd be away. No names, no addresses, no personal details at all and everything cash....so how the fook do they know all the MP's that have put a bet on? There must be a lot snitches out there.
I agree with this. Apart from pissing in a bottle of course I’ve not got a problem with people betting, although it’s not something that appeals to me. But I do think industry needs more regulation, due to the things brb points out where betting companies encourage people to bet more and more and have very little checks and balances about people’s capacity to stop, or about what they can afford. As pointed out people lose their houses, families and jobs through gambling addiction. But like Saf points out, the same is true about alcohol, and that is pushed heavily by the industry. The problem with politicians gambling on the outcome of the election, is that they are directly involved in that industry and even if they don’t have a material affect on the outcome, it’s something they shouldn’t even be anywhere near. We have rules about footballers not betting on the game, and serious sanctions for those that do. The way I see it, this is the same issue that applies to politicians betting on political outcomes.
It's all changed mate bcos now everyone and everything involving money, everywhere must be tracked. The argument is to avoid money laundering. I sometimes think we've lost something wholesome about the way ppl did things before digital stuff came about but that's a different story. Did the MPs do it under their own name or their wives? I would guess they're either really thick or thought they could get away with.
I was joking about the bottle lol. One thing just to add about using online betting. When it's cash do you feel differently about how much you bet? Online it's not tangible so more prone to addiction? I genuinely don't know, I wonder if there's any stats on this. Reason I mention it is because I heard something the other day about how ppl seem to accept the creeping increases in their weekly shop bcos it's just a number and a tap on the card, whereas ppl would perhaps kick off more if they were pulling hard cash out of their pocket.
