Gambling does not cause any ‘social ills’, lobbyist tells incredulous MPs
The boss of the UK’s main betting and gaming lobby group has told MPs that there is no “social ill with gambling” as she warned against imposing higher taxes on the sector in the November budget.Grainne Hurst, the chief executive of the Betting and Gaming Council, repeatedly made the statement to parliament’s Treasury select committee on Tuesday, where she also claimed that higher taxes would result in thousands of job losses and push punters into using hidden market services.Hurst made the comments as part of the gambling industry’s lobbying against calls to increase taxes on the sector – including on products seen as the most risky for creating problem gamblers, such as online casinos and the betting machines that fill high street adult gaming centres (AGCs).During an at-times testy session, the committee member John Glen said to Hurst: “This issue has become pertinent in the run-up to a budget because people and government [are] frustrated that the taxation of something that does have a significant social ill for those individuals isn’t properly addressed in our tax system.”Hurst responded: “I would disagree that there are social ills as a result of it.
I think that it is properly taxed in the system … Our argument is that if you increase further any additional taxes on the industry … it will put jobs at risk, will put shops at risk, will put sports sponsorship at risk.”The committee’s chair, Meg Hillier, then checked that she had understood Hurst’s position correctly and asked: “Do you think there are any social ills associated with gambling?” The lobbyist replied: “No.”She later added that the industry does “everything that it possibly can in order to mitigate any harms that may be caused by our products”.Earlier, the committee heard evidence from a panel of experts who all argued that taxes should be increased on the riskiest gambling products, while maintaining lower taxes on more benign forms of betting such as punting on horse racing and playing bingo.Stewart Kenny, a founder of the bookmaker Paddy Power, now retired, said that he regretted “some of the things I did” while working in the sector but that he had resigned from the group’s board in 2016 after 29 years because he did not believe the company was protecting problem gamblers enough.
“When you open an account to have a bet on the next general election or Manchester United to win the Premiership … within 24 hours [bookmakers] send you free spins in the casino, to the online slots,” he told the committee.“It is rather like going into a bar for your first drink and having a shandy and the barman … says: ‘Why not have a triple strength brandy on the house?’“So if we can disincentivise the bookmakers from sucking people from the least addictive product to the most addictive product, that I think is the most important [objective].”The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is under huge scrutiny about what measures she will announce in her budget next month, with many observers expecting a range of tax rises.Taxing the betting industry has been floated as an area where the Treasury could raise significant revenue, but the industry has been fighting the proposals.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionLast week Betfred said it would close all 1,287 of its high street betting shops if Reeves raised taxes on the gambling industry, while earlier this month the company behind William Hill said it was considering closing up to 200 betting shops if the chancellor raised taxes.
The industry has also argued that higher tax rates would mean lower revenues collected from the sector.Kenny – along with fellow experts Theo Bertram, the director of the Social Market Foundation, and Carsten Jung, the interim associate director for economic policy at the Institute for Public Policy Research – told MPs the government could “significantly increase taxes on online gambling and increase revenue”.After the meeting, Hillier said the chancellor had a difficult balancing act in deciding how betting should be taxed.She added: “While I accept parts of the gambling industry make an economic and cultural contribution to the UK, I am frankly flabbergasted that representatives from the betting sector could not accept that certain forms of gambling, such as highly addictive online casino games, cause social harm for some people.“I don’t believe that is a defensible position.
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EU carmakers ‘days away’ from halting work as chip war with China escalates
Carmakers in the EU are “days away” from closing production lines, the industry has warned, as a crisis over computer chip supplies from China escalates.The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) issued an urgent warning on Wednesday saying its members, which include BMW, Fiat, Peugeot and Volkswagen, were now working on “reserve stocks but supplies are dwindling”.“Assembly line stoppages might only be days away. We urge all involved to redouble their efforts to find a diplomatic way out of this critical situation,” said its director general, Sigrid de Vries.Another ACEA member, Mercedes, is now searching globally for alternative sources of the crucial semiconductors, according to its chief executive, Ola Källenius
Wall Street hits new highs as Nvidia becomes world’s first $5tn company – as it happened
Wall Street’s main indices hit new record highs, as Nvidia become the first company ever to surpass a $5tn stock market valuation.This comes amid a wave of big tech earnings reports, and as investors are waiting for the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision later today – it is widely expected to cut rates by a quarter point to 4%.Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B.Riley Wealth Management, told Reuters:While the $5tn milestone seems unfathomable in a historic context, it comes in the wake of a company that has managed to outperform on all metrics.Nvidia shares rose as much as 5% and are now up 4
Apple hits $4tn market value as new iPhone models revitalize sales
Apple topped $4tn (£3tn) in market value for the first time on Tuesday, joining Microsoft and Nvidia as the third company in history to hit the milestone, thanks to strong demand for its latest iPhones.Apple’s share price has increased by more than 50% since a low point in April, thanks to the debut of its latest products.“The iPhone accounts for over half of Apple’s profit and revenue, and the more phones they can get into the hands of people, the more they can drive people into their ecosystem,” said Chris Zaccarelli, the chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, before the milestone was reached.Apple’s shares had struggled earlier this year on concerns over tough competition in China and how it would cope with high US tariffs on Asian economies such as China and India, its main manufacturing hubs.However, the latest smartphones, the iPhone 17 lineup, have won back customers from Beijing to Moscow, while the company has swallowed tariff costs instead of passing them on to consumers
OpenAI completes conversion to for-profit business after lengthy legal saga
OpenAI said on Tuesday it had converted its main business into a for-profit corporation, the conclusion of a lengthy and fraught legal saga.A crucial regulator, Kathy Jennings, the Delaware attorney general, said she approved the plan for the startup, which began as a non-profit in 2015, to change to a public benefit corporation, a type of for-profit entity that expresses commitment to bettering society.The company also said it had reorganized its ownership structure and signed a new agreement with its longtime backer Microsoft that gives the software giant a roughly 27% stake in OpenAI’s new for-profit corporation, but changes some of the details of their close partnership. OpenAI was valued at $500bn under the terms of the deal, making Microsoft’s stake worth more than $100bn.The restructuring paves the way for the ChatGPT maker to more easily raise capital and profit off its artificial intelligence technology, even as it remains technically under the control of its own original non-profit entity
Dingwall backed to plot course through the midfield maze for England
Even Steve Borthwick admits that picking his team to face Australia on Saturday was tricky. And even after he had made his mind up, there was a training ground snapshot which underlined the slim margins involved. “There was a piece of play where the skill showed by the team not starting was absolutely incredible,” said Borthwick. “I couldn’t praise them highly enough for the way they tested the team that is starting.”Which neatly sums up England’s intensifying backline debate
South Africa beat England by 125 runs: Women’s Cricket World Cup semi-final – as it happened
That’s all for today. Thanks for your company and emails – we’ll be back in the morning for the second semi-final between India and Australia. Goodnight!Very special. Losing to England in the semis of the last two [ODI] World Cups really hurt so just really pleased to get the win tonight.[Did the 69 all out feature in your mind before the game?] It did a little bit! Same opposition, same venue; your mind automatically goes back to that game
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From Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere to IT: Welcome to Derry – your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead