‘Masked Morality, a new theory variant to explain the changes in British gambling policy 2005-2023'

Donaghue, Stephen

Abstract

This thesis considers British gambling policy since the passing of the Gambling Act 2005 until the publication of the Gambling White Paper on the 27th April 2023. It argues that overall, this policy has been a success but that vocal policy actors have successfully convinced the regulator and government that this has not been the case and that significant restrictions to gambling regulations in the supposed aim of preventing gambling harm. It further argues that the current methodology of analysing public policy about gambling, using either morality politics or advocacy coalition framework analysis, is not sufficient to consider British gambling politics as it fails to capture the range of ultimately commercial as well as ideological motivations of the policy actors lobbying for restrictions and proposes its own theory-variant, Masked Morality.

The thesis is structured around case studies that look at why gambling policy has changed over the time period. Moral panics and poor policy are found in the stopping of proposals for resort casinos, a well-funded effort by an industry competitor combined with a Minister who was no fan of gambling saw the effective abolition of fixed -odds betting terminals and the emergence of activist academics campaigning on the pretence of Public Health have caused the prohibitionist environment we find ourselves in now that the author believes will undoubtedly lead to an explosion in Black Market gambling.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Dec 2, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 24, 2025
• Award Date: Jan 23, 2025