UK political betting trial progresses with 12 defendants denying charges

The election betting scandal unearthed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has been referred to the Crown Court.

Earlier in April, the UKGC charged 15 individuals with allegedly breaching the 2005 Gambling Act by betting on the 2024 General Election date before it was publicly announced thanks to insider information.

Among the 15 named was Craig Williams, a former Conservative MP who was a parliamentary aide to then-PM Rishi Sunak. Of the 15 charged, 12 denied the charges and the remaining three did not enter a plea.

With the elections taking place in July, the UKGC investigation found that Williams had placed a bet on the correct timing in May. His close relationship with Sunak raised suspicions of him having prior knowledge on the matter.

The most recent development saw the former MP, alongside the 14 others, appear before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged by the UKGC with the gambling offences.

Together with two others, one of which a former police officer, Williams did not enter a plea. The 12 others denied any wrongdoings

The case was subsequently referred to the Crown Court by Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring. All 15 individuals are due to appear at Southwark Crown Court on 11 July.

This whole scenario puts another black mark to political betting, which is an already divisive topic within the bookmaker space due to the amount of inside knowledge that can be leveraged to compromise the integrity of the market in favour of personal gains.

A similar debate is currently taking place across the pond, where in order to comply with strict prohibitions, political betting has taken the shape of prediction markets – a form of financial services products used by the likes of Kalshi, Robinhood, and Crypto.com.

Because of their nature, the classification of such products often leads to legal limbos between individual states that view them as betting, the companies that offer them, and the US Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that regulates financial services.