Why is the bet a bad thing?

[jennywren08]

Not a conservative fan just a bit thick. Can someone please explain why it's bad that this bet took place?

Because it’s cheating

Is it illegal then?

Because they’re betting on something that they have prior knowledge of.

Insider knowledge is illegal.

It's the equivalent of insider trading - making a profit from information not yet in the public domain.

AKA cheating, or obtaining money by deception - defrauding someone else essentially.

Yes

It's illegal. Its like insider trading. The people that bet took advantage of confidential information to make money.

It looks quite widespread too so more like an organised plan than someone just being tempted.

Betting with sure knowledge of something that isn't in the public realm is illegal.

It's like insider trading in finance.

I see. Thanks all!

Inside information. It’s like if I knew my dad’s company was about to be sold and the shares would go sky high I couldn’t buy them in advance to make a killing on share trading because it would be inside information.

It basically takes the 'gamble' out of gambling.

Because those placing the bets knew when the election was going to be. They had inside knowledge. This is obviously unfair.

Another reason it's bad is the amount of people who knew a GE was going to be announced before the PM told the Cabinet.

They placed a bet when they already knew the date of the election.

So it is no longer gambling, it is cheating/fraud.

Similar to insider trading in the financial sector.

Hard to believe they had the dishonesty to do this and were stupid enough to think they would not get caught.

The Tories are really running the most calamitous election campaign ever...

Karma is indeed a bitch.

Insider information to gain money.
Cheating.
Plus ca change.

Did they have prior knowledge?
So many Tory MPs weren't ready for the election, so many local party candidate panels didn't know. I don't think they were lying about not knowing, there was genuine widespread huge surprise.

The political journalists didn't know, they were deffo caught on the hop. The people whose job is literally chasing rumours.... didn't know.

So how did this wide group of many other types of people (who placed bets) definitely "know"?

Because presumably the "knowing" wasn't just the people accused of cheat-betting. Lots of people don't bet, so the knowing would have to have extended to many dozens of other people. Yet somehow this very widespread 'knowledge' didn't leak to journalists or the Opposition?

Besides, how many bets are based on 'prior' or "insider" knowledge. Isn't that super common? "I know this horse is a sure thing", "my mate is Johnny Superstar's dad and Johnny's results in sport training are amazing, he'll win at the track meet for sure." etc

Evan Davis on PM programme tried to explore where the boundaries are in 'cheat betting' yesterday and made zero progress as far as I can tell. Meanwhile, most people placing bets believe they have prior knowledge. Every bet is cheating , therefore, if the concept of cheat betting can even exist.

I don’t think many is saying that they definitely did know, just that that’s why they’re being investigated. Because there’s a chance they knew, and therefore it’s fraudulent. As the investigation is ongoing, we have no way of knowing if they are guilty of what they’re being accused of yet.

But even knowing that someone’s training has gone really well isn’t a guarantee they will win - it’s still subject to performance on the day, injury, a fall, someone else’s training having been better. So no guarantee of the outcome.

Whereas there’s no chance of not winning with the information ‘the election will be held on 4 July.’ So not the same thing at all.

Apart from anything else it was extremely stupid to place those bets. It should have been obvious that it could lead to an appearance of fraud at the very least.

It shows something about the capability and common sense of the people involved that they couldn’t join the dots between winning the bet and looking like they had cheated. So even if they didn’t actually know the election date they should have been wary of putting themselves in this position. I do, however, find it difficult to believe that people so close to Sunak did not have insider knowledge.

Exactly. I work in journalism and as it happens I didn’t know about the date until a few hours before the announcement. I would never have had a punt on it though as I know that it would look like I had insider knowledge. Much more clearly a bad idea if you work at Tory HQ.

They won't have cared about their dishonesty being discovered. Johnson normalised this sort of disregard for honesty, ethics and decency.

Under the Gambling Act, it's quite possible that no offence has taken place. So the Gambling Commission may be acting outside its remit. Obviously many will consider the actions of the individuals to be unethical.

The outcries of "pity the poor bookmakers" sound a bit opportunistic for an industry that isn't the most ethical in its own conduct.

The police officer was arrected over suspicion of misconduct in a public office - a completely different offence.

Under the Gambling Act, it's quite possible that no offence has taken place. So the Gambling Commission may be acting outside its remit.

It’s the police that will investigate - how is the gambling commission’s remit at issue here?

Oh ignore me, it’s both apparently.