What Are Culture Minister Michelle Donelan’s Views On Gambling?

The whole of the United Kingdom was awaiting the final result of the votes cast by the Conservatives to determine their new leader on September 5. By default, that person would also become the country’s new Prime Minister, with Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak being the final two runners in contention for the position.

In the end, the former would receive the highest number of votes from her party, and on Tuesday, September 6, became the new Prime Minister after meeting the Queen at Balmoral.

Truss accepted the position of PM, making her the 56^th leader of the country and the third female to assume the role. While a lot of focus was centred on what the new Prime Minister will do with regard to the energy prices in the UK, the reshuffling of her cabinet was also under scrutiny.

On the day that she became the leader of the country, she made numerous appointments to new positions. One of those appointments saw Michelle Donelan, the MP for Chippenham, move from her position as Secretary of State for Education to Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

This stands out as a significant appointment for the gambling industry in the United Kingdom, as Donelan gave her support for plans to reduce the stakes on gaming machines in betting shops in 2018. This begs the question as to how influential she will be on the upcoming gambling reform white paper due out in the near future. The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has welcomed Donelan into her new position, even though she has strongly supported gambling reform in the past.

Yet she has voiced her views on certain things already, including her intent to scrap the BBC licence fee, which was a big issue for many older people once it was introduced. In February, 2021, it was reported that 750,000 OAPs had refused to pay for their TV licences, leaving a £117 million void for the broadcasting network.

Will Donelan be able to not only reverse that but introduce effective gambling reform that doesn’t cripple the industry in the UK?  Will she be given free reign by Liz Truss or will her agenda be defined from above?

A Look at Donelan and Her Views

Gareth Milner from London, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Donelan became a Member of Parliament in 2015, having come from a career in media and entertainment. She spent three years in the Department for Education and then became the shortest serving cabinet minister in the country’s history in July, spending just two days as the education secretary under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Meanwhile the British government undertook its review of the gambling act in December 2020. And despite multiple dates being set for a publication of the white paper associated with such, something has yet to come to fruition. Various issues have caused it to be delayed, with the latest being the resignation of Johnson and the appointment of a new Prime Minister. Reforms included within it are expected to surround certain controversial affordability checks for online gamblers.

The Chief Executive of the BGC, Michael Dugher sent out his congratulations to Donelan after she was appointed to the position. He said that he spoke “on behalf of the 119,000 people”, who hold jobs that are supported by BGC members.

“We have been working extremely closely with the DCMS over many years to help the government find the right balance in the gambling review”,

he said. In doing so, the BGC has supposedly been trying to ensure that safer gambling practices are in operation, and that people can gamble safely and responsibly.

Back in 2018, Donelan supported the decision to reduce maximum stakes on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) found in high street bookies. At the time, she said that it would address an issue that had been the cause of destruction in so many peoples’ lives. Alongside this, the MP asked what could be done so as to tackle the increase in gambling advertising, which she described as “dramatic”.

As well as being congratulated by the BGC, Donelan’s appointment to her new position was welcomed by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling Related Harm. In response, it tweeted out that reform in the gambling scene “cannot be delayed any further”.

Will the White Paper Finally Be Published Now?

Many people are stuck in limbo while waiting for the white paper on gambling reform to be published. Not least the campaigners against gambling and operators providing gambling services across Britain.

The white paper itself is expected to modernise the gambling laws in the country, making them more suitable for the modern age we live in. Many have held up their hopes that there will be certain restrictions introduced through the reform, too. This includes a possible ban on gambling sponsorship in the Premier League, as well as mandatory levies imposed on operators.

Donelan, while having placed a prime focus on the BBC licensing issues and potential privatization of Channel4, may also get some say in the gambling reform laws. The new Prime Minister is yet to make additional appointments within this area, so it is currently not determined who will be put in charge of it and thereby oversee the white paper.

Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Many have said that Donelan can’t do a worse job within her DCMS position than former positon-holder Nadine Dorries. Some labelled Dorries as being quite “toxic” for the role of culture secretary, with arts and media suffering under her rule as part of Johnson’s Tory government. Many believed that Dorries didn’t take her position as culture secretary seriously, and this contributed to many issues within government.

Donelan has been left with a big list of things to tackle. Some of them have undoubtedly been left behind by the chaos of Dorries’ time spent in the head of DCMS position. The best thing she can do is learn from the big mistakes that her predecessor made. As Jane Martinson of The Guardian reports, Donelan would do well to make sure she understands all of the things she is in control of before making judgements on them. That was one of many areas where Dorries failed miserably.

Time will tell what her views on gambling reform will mean for the upcoming white paper. But as long as she understands what the reform means for the industry and the country as a whole, potentially she will ensure that it provides satisfaction on both sides of the argument.