Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, has appeared on the BBC’S You and Yours to discuss the collapse of the Football Index.
The Football Index, licensed by the Gambling Commission, is a scheme that allows customers to gamble on the future successes of football players. Under the scheme, people can purchase imaginary shares which led to daily pay-outs that are calculated on player performance. Large dividends were promised to investors in order to ensure they paid into the scheme, and this money was then used to fund the daily pay-outs.
The CEO of the Football Index assured people that yield is ‘guaranteed’, but, due to investors putting in less money, the funds dried up, reducing the value of all open bets and users saw their portfolio valuations drop by up to 90%. Betting has now been suspended and customers cannot make deposits or withdrawals, and Football Index has entered into administration and has its gambling license suspended. Around £90 million is owed to people who put money into the scheme.
Richard, along with James Wild MP, has now described the Football Index as nothing more than a ‘Ponzi scheme’ and spoken out about people who have lost ‘life-altering’ sums of money. Richard has questioned why the Gambling Commission saw fit to license the Football Index and has voiced his concerns over the lack of provisions for consumer redress, pointing out that the gambling sector gives people fewer consumer rights than other sectors. You can read about Richard and James speaking about the Football Index here.
This follows Richard’s campaign to prevent gambling related harm – Richard has previously welcomed the Government review to ensure gambling laws are fit for purpose, which you can read about here, and led a key Select Committee report into gambling harm, which you can read about here. Richard has previously revealed that his constituents overwhelmingly support his work to prevent gambling related harm (read about this here) and is running a campaign against the ‘Lottery Loophole’ to get a ban on under-18s gambling hundreds of pounds a week on instant win games, which you can read about here. Richard is also a member of the Across-Party Parliament Group on Gambling Related Harm.
Richard has now appeared on the BBC’S You and Yours show to discuss the Football Index.
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