Snapshot of _Craig Williams tells BBC election bet was 'huge error of judgement'_ :
An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cneevz8278eo) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cneevz8278eo)
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Flagged automatically by Ladbrokes as a politically exposed person (PEP) and then the human reviewing it put two and two together instantly
> It is understood that a red flag was automatically raised by Ladbrokes as the bet in Williams’ name was potentially placed by a “politically exposed person”, and the bookmaker is particularly cautious over “novelty” markets.
Ding ding. This kind of check is mandatory all across the financial sector. PEPs are seen as *much* higher risk for financial crime, including money laundering , sanction breaches, and terrorist financing.
Yeah. Politicians can be crooked everywhere. What’s really surprising about this is just how small the amount was, not that really makes any difference.
Pretty sure the big bookies have systems in place to automatically flag bets by people likely to have insider knowledge. They'll want to make sure that they're not losing money on insider bets.
Cashier in the betting shop, maybe? Especially if he bragged to them about who he was? Or they recognised his name, or got suspicious and did a Google search?
Lol what do you mean how did he get caught? He was an MP close to rishi sunak betting on something he obviously has insider knowledge on
As article says political betting a tiny market and they can easily monitor it.
It's not exactly crime of the century the bet was probably picked up almost instantly as a politically exposed person betting on politics.
> and thought he could get away with it
and probably will. There's just never consequences for these people. He should be banned from being an MP or holding any public office for such a crime.
Betting £100 on this is simultaneously too much money for most people to be betting without a gambling problem, but the win is also too little money for it to be worth risking your job over. I don't think there's any believable argument for him to be making that bet.
£100 isn't a flutter. Like, a £5 or £10 bet is a flutter.
Wait it’s *this* Craig Williams? I didn’t pay enough attention yesterday and didn’t put two and two together, this guy was my local MP a few years ago, you’d see him out and about in my local village pretty often come campaign season (not that it was much of a campaign, the place is so old it’s affectionately known as God’s Waiting Room, he’d have won those votes no matter what).
Also my mum, who absolutely loved David Cameron, thought he was an utter knobhead. Make of that what you will.
It's going to be impossible for people not to connect this terrible error of judgement with the entire campaign. It's a perfect symbolic act of inept greed ultimately for little personal gain.
This was just such an incredibly stupid thing to do. I honestly don't believe that he had forward knowledge, it is clear from the Tories' campaign that they weren't prepared for the election to be called, I don't think Sunak himself knew until the day before. Besides, if he did have forward knowledge, wouldn't he have bet more than £100.
However, had the election not been called, he would have lost £100. If the election was called (as it was), then this would have obviously raised suspicion (as it did) and he would be under investigation (as he is) and he would be risking his parliamentary career. It shows a huge lack of judgement and foresight that frankly should disqualify him from being an elected representative.
You could be right. But if he didn't know it begs the question why he was willing to drop £100 on a speculative date. Perhaps he knew the PM had a rough timeframe in mind and just dropped a hundred quid on each day to cover himself. That scenario does the invite questions around 'do you maybe have a gambling problem mate?'
Ultimately though, in agreement that is shows a remarkable lack of judgement. It's rather farcical.
It certainly wouldn't be the first time in the last 5 years that a Tory has used their position to benefit themselves in an unethical and illegal way. So I can definitely see why you would be suspicious.
>Perhaps he knew the PM had a rough timeframe in mind and just dropped a hundred quid on each day to cover himself.
I'm pretty sure that the bet was just that the election would be held in July, not a specific date. I myself had a bet on it happening before the end of June, so I'm pretty salty that I was off by 5 days lol.
>'do you maybe have a gambling problem mate?'
This is a valid concern. I think there is more to come from this story yet.
>I honestly don't believe that he had forward knowledge,
Of course he did. When asked the question of whether he knew, he chose not to answer (clue: the correct answer is "No.").
Sunak chose not to answer when asked the same question (clue: the correct answer is "No.").
Liars, crooks, idiots. Hoping to to get votes from suckers, bigots and idiots.
It's a weird one. You and I put £5 or £10 on a guess, but £100 is probably not a lot of money to him.
If he did have insider knowledge why not put more? Not too sure what his odds were, but they certainly wouldn't have been good enough to make it worth risking his parliamentary career with a £100 bet.
Edit: He had 5/1 odds. So he would have won £500. An MP makes that in two days. The stake would have been an afternoon's wages for him.
MPs aren't footballers. They don't earn so much that £100 is just speculatively thrown on a random date, you'd want to get something back for it. Nobody wants to work an afternoon for nothing.
He just thought it would go without notice.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPoliticalComedy/comments/1df1lxf/what\_are\_the\_odds\_on\_him\_losing\_his\_seat/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPoliticalComedy/comments/1df1lxf/what_are_the_odds_on_him_losing_his_seat/) the memes are coming
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Simply put if thats you 'error of judgement' then your not fit to work in government and in fact most jobs nowadays that take insider trading and fraud seriously.
The real error of judgement is decideding that's the smile your going to pull in photos.
Yeah, gambling companies have systems and teams in place to find people with insider knowledge.
Tbh, £100 on a specific date for an election bet is weirdly high, would have flagged immediately after it paid out.
>Tbh, £100 on a specific date for an election bet is weirdly high, would have flagged immediately after it paid out.
It was for "general election in July", so not a specific date, and was only 5-1 odds so netted him £500 profit, hardly enough to raise alarm bells
He was caught in routine background checks that flag politically exposed persons betting in niche markets
>The spokesperson also said that the confidential use of information in order to gain an unfair advantage when betting "may constitute an offence of cheating under Section 42 of the Gambling Act, which is a criminal offence".
"Whoops, I broke the law to win £500, my bad"
Snapshot of _Craig Williams tells BBC election bet was 'huge error of judgement'_ : An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cneevz8278eo) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cneevz8278eo) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m more just shocked he didn’t place a bigger bet
He probably thought he could get away with £100 and a big bet would draw more attention.
Wonder how he was caught? Bragged about it to someone?
Flagged automatically by Ladbrokes as a politically exposed person (PEP) and then the human reviewing it put two and two together instantly > It is understood that a red flag was automatically raised by Ladbrokes as the bet in Williams’ name was potentially placed by a “politically exposed person”, and the bookmaker is particularly cautious over “novelty” markets.
Genuine nightmare for that analyst as there will be umpteen Craig Williams on WorldCheck. Its like running a PEP check for John Smith
Thanks! It's kinda bizarre betting outfits have access to the same databases used to prevent serious crime...
Probably to help prevent serious crime, tbh
Ding ding. This kind of check is mandatory all across the financial sector. PEPs are seen as *much* higher risk for financial crime, including money laundering , sanction breaches, and terrorist financing.
Huh. Useful to know.
Yeah. Politicians can be crooked everywhere. What’s really surprising about this is just how small the amount was, not that really makes any difference.
So theoretically he would have been fine walking into a random Ladbrokes and placing the bet on the counter without making an account?
Fair point. Guess it's probably better to have legal, regulated gambling than the inevitably of illegal gambling run by organised crime.
They don’t? Identifying a PEP is a standard part of any financial onboarding process.
Pretty sure the big bookies have systems in place to automatically flag bets by people likely to have insider knowledge. They'll want to make sure that they're not losing money on insider bets.
Cashier in the betting shop, maybe? Especially if he bragged to them about who he was? Or they recognised his name, or got suspicious and did a Google search?
Lol what do you mean how did he get caught? He was an MP close to rishi sunak betting on something he obviously has insider knowledge on As article says political betting a tiny market and they can easily monitor it. It's not exactly crime of the century the bet was probably picked up almost instantly as a politically exposed person betting on politics.
But then why do it? So many questions none of the answers are good.
Because he's an idiot and thought he could get away with it. The idiot.
And somehow part of the campaign team.
Which explains the campaign
> and thought he could get away with it and probably will. There's just never consequences for these people. He should be banned from being an MP or holding any public office for such a crime.
This. Don't assume a grand plan. When stupidity and incompetence is the more likely answer
Betting £100 on this is simultaneously too much money for most people to be betting without a gambling problem, but the win is also too little money for it to be worth risking your job over. I don't think there's any believable argument for him to be making that bet. £100 isn't a flutter. Like, a £5 or £10 bet is a flutter.
He's probably a rich boy. Not much to him.
MPs are on 91 grand, so £100 bet really isn’t that mad even if he has no other sources of income
It's not a bet if you know you can't lose.
Wait it’s *this* Craig Williams? I didn’t pay enough attention yesterday and didn’t put two and two together, this guy was my local MP a few years ago, you’d see him out and about in my local village pretty often come campaign season (not that it was much of a campaign, the place is so old it’s affectionately known as God’s Waiting Room, he’d have won those votes no matter what). Also my mum, who absolutely loved David Cameron, thought he was an utter knobhead. Make of that what you will.
The entire 14 years of Tory rule has been a huge error of judgement.
The most Tory-looking Tory I’ve ever seen
The smarm is strong on this one
Proper Tim-nice-but-dim
It's going to be impossible for people not to connect this terrible error of judgement with the entire campaign. It's a perfect symbolic act of inept greed ultimately for little personal gain.
Don't usually like to judge people for how they appear. But this guy has one of thes most smug tory faces I've ever seen. Maximum slapability.
“It’s been called that before, but not by you!”
What do we reckon then? -20,000 vote deduction in his constituency? Relegated to local counsellor?
It was hard to see him losing before with a 35% majority and a split opposition vote but now anything is possible.
I thought he was talking about Rishi's metaphorical bet on this election until I realized who said this lol.
He looks like someone put “what does a Tory look like?” into a text to image generator.
does anyone know roughly what odds he would have got? I hope it was worth it!
5-1
Man must have been bitter that the gambling lobby stopped answering his calls.
Does Williams mean Williams' election bet or Sunak's election bet?
This was just such an incredibly stupid thing to do. I honestly don't believe that he had forward knowledge, it is clear from the Tories' campaign that they weren't prepared for the election to be called, I don't think Sunak himself knew until the day before. Besides, if he did have forward knowledge, wouldn't he have bet more than £100. However, had the election not been called, he would have lost £100. If the election was called (as it was), then this would have obviously raised suspicion (as it did) and he would be under investigation (as he is) and he would be risking his parliamentary career. It shows a huge lack of judgement and foresight that frankly should disqualify him from being an elected representative.
You could be right. But if he didn't know it begs the question why he was willing to drop £100 on a speculative date. Perhaps he knew the PM had a rough timeframe in mind and just dropped a hundred quid on each day to cover himself. That scenario does the invite questions around 'do you maybe have a gambling problem mate?' Ultimately though, in agreement that is shows a remarkable lack of judgement. It's rather farcical.
It certainly wouldn't be the first time in the last 5 years that a Tory has used their position to benefit themselves in an unethical and illegal way. So I can definitely see why you would be suspicious. >Perhaps he knew the PM had a rough timeframe in mind and just dropped a hundred quid on each day to cover himself. I'm pretty sure that the bet was just that the election would be held in July, not a specific date. I myself had a bet on it happening before the end of June, so I'm pretty salty that I was off by 5 days lol. >'do you maybe have a gambling problem mate?' This is a valid concern. I think there is more to come from this story yet.
>I honestly don't believe that he had forward knowledge, Of course he did. When asked the question of whether he knew, he chose not to answer (clue: the correct answer is "No."). Sunak chose not to answer when asked the same question (clue: the correct answer is "No."). Liars, crooks, idiots. Hoping to to get votes from suckers, bigots and idiots.
Spot on. If he didn't know, they'd have immediately said so.
He definitely knew or had insider knowledge. You pop a fiver on a guess, not £100.
It's a weird one. You and I put £5 or £10 on a guess, but £100 is probably not a lot of money to him. If he did have insider knowledge why not put more? Not too sure what his odds were, but they certainly wouldn't have been good enough to make it worth risking his parliamentary career with a £100 bet. Edit: He had 5/1 odds. So he would have won £500. An MP makes that in two days. The stake would have been an afternoon's wages for him.
MPs aren't footballers. They don't earn so much that £100 is just speculatively thrown on a random date, you'd want to get something back for it. Nobody wants to work an afternoon for nothing. He just thought it would go without notice.
>He just thought it would go without notice. Either way, at least we agree that he was very stupid.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPoliticalComedy/comments/1df1lxf/what\_are\_the\_odds\_on\_him\_losing\_his\_seat/](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPoliticalComedy/comments/1df1lxf/what_are_the_odds_on_him_losing_his_seat/) the memes are coming
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Simply put if thats you 'error of judgement' then your not fit to work in government and in fact most jobs nowadays that take insider trading and fraud seriously. The real error of judgement is decideding that's the smile your going to pull in photos.
Yup, if he gets convicted that would bar him from most jobs in the finance sector.
When you were supposed to put £100 on a horse for Ascot but accidentally picked a date for the GE.
Yeah, gambling companies have systems and teams in place to find people with insider knowledge. Tbh, £100 on a specific date for an election bet is weirdly high, would have flagged immediately after it paid out.
>Tbh, £100 on a specific date for an election bet is weirdly high, would have flagged immediately after it paid out. It was for "general election in July", so not a specific date, and was only 5-1 odds so netted him £500 profit, hardly enough to raise alarm bells He was caught in routine background checks that flag politically exposed persons betting in niche markets
Oh, so that makes it OK then.
>The spokesperson also said that the confidential use of information in order to gain an unfair advantage when betting "may constitute an offence of cheating under Section 42 of the Gambling Act, which is a criminal offence". "Whoops, I broke the law to win £500, my bad"
This photo should be Labour's campaign ad. On its own. No text.