Supporting cast: how can UK operators attract more allies in government?

When it comes to ensuring interesting data and developments don’t get in the way of a catchy assumption, our industry is invariably in a league of its own. “The house always wins.” “Venetia’s horses love the mud.” “You can’t get more than 20 pence on with [insert bookmaker here].” In the days before Twitter (when everybody could get whatever they liked on with [insert bookmaker here] of course), the tried-and-tested rules of gambling were passed down from generation to generation. To dispute these commandments was blasphemous.

More recently, one particular edict that likes to do the rounds when we’ve not gazed at our navels for a few days is that the industry has less political support than ever before. The industry has self-harmed to such an extent that a whole host of moderate or even pro-gambling parliamentarians have retreated back into their shells and allowed the soap-box to be almost exclusively occupied by the critics. “It’s futile trying to make progress. Nowadays, you can probably count the industry’s supporters on one hand. Same old suspects, too”, sigh no shortage of industry veterans. Undoubtedly, prior to and during the passage of the 2005 Gambling Act, there was less hostility towards the wider industry and, dare I say it, more of a focus on how the industry might be enabled to flourish. Aspirations of a strong, regulated gambling industry were even considered to be “a good thing” 15 or so years ago.

Fast forward to late 2018 when I arrived at Rank, having spent 14 previous years elsewhere in the industry. “You’re lucky. You’ve got (Mecca) bingo. MPs love the bingo. They like to call the numbers! If you want to engage with an MP, take them to their local bingo club.” Fond memories of how and why the bingo duty was cut in 2014 would invariably roll off the tongue. Putting aside the awkward truth that many customers go to the bingo to escape politicians and roll their eyes if their MP turns up to press some flesh and call the numbers, there is certainly something in it. The bingo industry enjoys broad political support; a good number of MPs are happy to take to their feet from the green benches and celebrate the merits of community-based bingo, the social cohesion it generates, and trumpet the belief that bingo clubs are part of the to-be-celebrated fabric of many towns and cities. In general, MPs have little trouble recognising and appreciating the value of businesses in their constituencies that provide employment, entertainment and, whisper it quietly, enjoyment. Unsurprisingly, I agree with them, but then again, I would, wouldn’t I?

But while bingo is officially “a good thing”, the political process of reopening our casino business post-lockdown provided an unforeseeable stress-test of the old maxim that “gambling has no friends”. As summer unfolded, we sought to outline the contributions that our casinos make to the Exchequer, to local communities, the fact that our venues were and are Covid-safe, the labour-intensive realities of our casinos and the thousands of jobs they support.

However, a late June setback which ruled out a 4 of July reopening of our venues (as our Mecca clubs in England reopened) was a jolt to the system and prompted direct MP constituency engagement. As I encouraged our understandably frazzled general managers around the country to engage with their local MPs, I also moved to manage expectations. I’d noticed that Duncan Bannatyne had sought to do similar as he lobbied for the reopening of his gyms but had secured limited MP support. A Dragon, with almost 800,000 engaged Twitter followers and the benefit of public perception on his side as, lest we forget, gyms are “a good thing”. I didn’t hold my breath as we politely encouraged local MPs to listen to our arguments and add their voices to our appeals to government.

We had 34 English MPs to approach. It started well enough: general recognition of the problems we were facing, a handful of encouraging responses, half a dozen offers to escalate our plight to various ministers, even the offer of a visit to see first-hand what measures we had in place. Not bad. However, it wasn’t enough. As the setbacks of July unfolded with juddering impacts to our cashflow, despite having secured all the relevant sign-offs from government regarding the safety of our venues, we needed as many MPs to understand what it meant to the communities and to act decisively.

Garnering support

And the louder we made our call, the more our support grew. Across the country, more and more MPs expressed their dismay – from all sides of the House – at the absurdity of keeping our well-prepared venues shuttered. One after another, they came to visit our Grosvenor casinos. They came to learn more, to understand the nature and details of casino operations, to listen to frontline colleagues who were fearful for their jobs. MPs who had hitherto shown little or no interest in the industry were mobilising at scale to right an obvious wrong and to protect jobs and local businesses. At the time of writing and with two more still scheduled for later this month, we have 36 casinos reopened, of which 14 have been visited by their local MP in the past couple of months, all of whom went on to share their feedback at ministerial level. As strike-rates go, we were thrilled to bits.

Other operators have done much the same thing and, partly through design and partly by accident, we have uncovered far more willingness to engage with the casino sector than might have been the case prior to the challenges we currently face.

And what does it mean for casinos? Can we rely on these newly-discovered MPs to rise to their feet in the Commons when they return from recess, bellow for the harmonisation of the 1968 and 2005 Gambling Acts or cheerlead for casinos who often support the night-time and tourist economies at a time when they face enormous strain? No. Of course not. Nor should we necessarily seek it. Our work to ensure casinos were allowed to reopen wasn’t about lobbying; it was about securing recognition of what we do, what we are about and, where necessary, busting some myths.

As an industry, we are depressingly obsessed with fishing for ‘allies’. We ought to take a step back and, instead of fishing in a small pond of friends and supporters, we should cast our net deeper into the sea of parliamentarians who might just be willing to give us a fair hearing. The bigger the contribution we can make, the more likely it is we will get the recognition we seek. We ought to have confidence that what we offer and provide is worthy of social and political support. What the past couple of months have revealed is that our aspirations are not as hopeless as we might have feared. How elected officials respond to our entreaties is often a good reflection of the extent to which they think we can provide something valuable – either economically or socially. If we struggle to gain support, it is likely a signal that we need to firstly get our own house in order before we solicit the support of those two Houses in Westminster.

But the group that is willing to engage is, happily, bigger than we might have imagined. It is these MPs who have shown themselves willing to stand up for a casino industry that deserved their support during a crisis, and who have offered to follow our progress over the coming weeks and months as we seek to rebuild our businesses. If we allow them to disengage, to return to ‘easier’ projects, or worse still, allow the goodwill and interest we have generated to be converted into apathy or resentment, we will have no one to blame but ourselves. The same is true of the media and it was refreshing to see the mainstream TV and print media, last weekend, featuring prominent articles and clips celebrating the reopening of casinos.

So, the next time we’re wearily told that nobody likes us and nobody cares, let’s lift up our chins, back ourselves and prove them wrong. And let’s not just back Venetia Williams’ chasers purely because somebody tells us that the ground is heavy.

David Williams is the director of public affairs at Rank, the biggest (Grosvenor) casino operator in the UK and second biggest (Mecca) bingo operator. He began his career in the industry on the Ladbrokes graduate scheme in 2004, where his roles included director of media. He oversees Rank’s programme of work with government, politicians and industry stakeholders. The entire estate of Grosvenor and Mecca venues went into lockdown on the evening of Friday 20 March.