{"id":216573,"date":"2022-06-09T09:02:18","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T16:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=216573"},"modified":"2022-06-09T13:23:16","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T20:23:16","slug":"uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Government Won\u2019t Bail Out Football Index Victims, Says Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK government will not compensate individuals who lost money amid the collapse<\/a> of soccer trading site Football Index.<\/p>\n

\"Football
The UK\u2019s minister for sport Nigel Huddleston said regulation must be tightened around novel products that blur the lines between gambling and investing. (Image: Yahoo Sports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At a special parliamentary debate Tuesday on the impact of the fiasco, UK sports minister Nigel Huddleston MP said it would be \u201cinappropriate\u201d to use public funds to bail out customers of a gambling company.<\/p>\n

\n

Football Index imploded in March 2021, taking millions of pounds held in customer accounts. Subsequently, insolvency documents showed that the company had \u00a3124 million (USD $155 million) in \u201copen bets\u201d at the time of its demise but only around \u00a34 million (USD $5 million) in cash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The trading site is reported to have had over 50,000 registered users, but only around 30,000 were regular traders. The Times of London<\/em> estimated average individual losses of around \u00a33,000 ($3,760) each.<\/p>\n

Critics say the company\u2019s business model was like a Ponzi scheme doomed to fail from the beginning.<\/p>\n

Market Crash<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The company billed itself as a combination of fantasy sports and the stock market, advertising heavily in and around British soccer. The platform allowed users to buy \u201cshares\u201d in soccer players, which would earn them \u201cdividends\u201d based on real-world player performances and fluctuating transfer-market values.<\/p>\n

But these shares were purely notional, with no underlying value. This meant the business model required the constant sale of new shares to new users for Football Index to pay its liabilities to winning customers.<\/p>\n

The market crashed overnight after the company announced it would dramatically slash dividend payments in a bid to \u201censure the long-term sustainability of the platform.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Users panicked and cashed out. Those that didn\u2019t see the value of their shares quickly evaporate.<\/p>\n

Many MPs present Tuesday said constituents had lost investments they planned to use for deposits on homes or their children\u2019s education. The victims said they believed these losses resulted from regulatory failure and that they should be compensated by the government.<\/p>\n

Regulator Dropped Ball<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Huddleston expressed sympathy but ruled out compensation. Instead, he said steps would be taken to tighten regulation around novel products that blur the line between gambling and investing.<\/p>\n

A government report<\/a> published last September said the UK Gambling Commission had failed to fully understand Football Index until it was too late and may even have issued it the wrong license type.<\/p>\n

The regulator was aware of the company\u2019s financial difficulties and considered suspending its license but feared this would cause the crash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UK government will not compensate individuals who lost money amid the collapse of soccer trading site Football Index. At a special parliamentary debate Tuesday on the impact of the fiasco, UK sports minister Nigel Huddleston MP said it would be \u201cinappropriate\u201d to use public funds to bail out customers of a gambling company. Football […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":216574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUK Government Won\u2019t Bail Out Football Index Victims, Says Minister<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Football Index customers who lost money will not be compensated with public money, says government minister Nigel Huddleston.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UK Government Won\u2019t Bail Out Football Index Victims, Says Minister\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Football Index customers who lost money will not be compensated with public money, says government minister Nigel Huddleston.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-09T16:02:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-09T20:23:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Nige.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/\",\"name\":\"UK Government Won\u2019t Bail Out Football Index Victims, Says Minister\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Nige.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-09T16:02:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-09T20:23:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Football Index customers who lost money will not be compensated with public money, says government minister Nigel Huddleston.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Nige.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Nige.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"The UK\u2019s minister for sport Nigel Huddleston said regulation must be tightened around novel products that blur the line between gambling and investing. (Image: Yahoo Sports)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports Betting\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"UK Government Won\u2019t Bail Out Football Index Victims, Says Minister\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UK Government Won\u2019t Bail Out Football Index Victims, Says Minister","description":"Football Index customers who lost money will not be compensated with public money, says government minister Nigel Huddleston.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UK Government Won\u2019t Bail Out Football Index Victims, Says Minister","og_description":"Football Index customers who lost money will not be compensated with public money, says government minister Nigel Huddleston.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2022-06-09T16:02:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-09T20:23:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Nige.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/","name":"UK Government Won\u2019t Bail Out Football Index Victims, Says Minister","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Nige.jpg","datePublished":"2022-06-09T16:02:18+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-09T20:23:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Football Index customers who lost money will not be compensated with public money, says government minister Nigel Huddleston.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Nige.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Nige.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"The UK\u2019s minister for sport Nigel Huddleston said regulation must be tightened around novel products that blur the line between gambling and investing. (Image: Yahoo Sports)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-government-wont-bail-out-football-index-victims-says-minister\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports Betting","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"UK Government Won\u2019t Bail Out Football Index Victims, Says Minister"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}