No Criminal Charges Over Election Betting
The Metropolitan Police have announced that they will not be pursuing any charges of misconduct in public office against politicians and political figures who placed bets on the election date. Their statement says “the cases will be passed back to the Gambling Commission for further investigation.” Guido told you so…
As co-conspirators know, the Section 42 definition of “Cheating” as per the Gambling Act applies when you nobble a horse, bribe a croupier or mark cards – not when you have inside information that your bet is a dead certainty. Whilst the optics and ethical dimension of the bets are not good, it still required interference to be a crime. The scandal was load of bollocks and an effective muddying of the waters for political purposes…
It’s fairly likely that the bets in question might be voided* as often happens. The Lobby journalists who placed their own bets using “insider information” will be breathing a sigh of relief…
*Guido’s after the event bet appears to have been quietly voided if he is not mistaken.
