Welcome to the pleasure dome – but take your lawyer with you

Financial gambling is fast becoming a legal minefield for punters, bookmakers and regulators. Helen Parry of London Metropolitan University looks at how the cards are falling. (See note 1 for the ‘pleasure dome’ reference.). “I still regret not having a few quid on Labour seats at the last election. Labour’s pollster told me days before the result that we were in for a landslide. But I suppose I would have been guilty of insider dealing.”. Charlie Whelan [2]

The FSA, spread betting and the gambling bill

Happily, the long arm of the FSA Enforcement Division does not yet extend quite as far as spread betting on the outcome of elections but it does have the power to prosecute for insider dealing in respect of spread bets relating to securities. [3] Asif Butt, a former vice-president of Compliance at Credit Suisse First Boston, is currently on trial with four others for conspiracy to commit insider dealing using spread bets. He worked in the secure control room as leader of a team that monitored and updated the bank’s “watch list” of corporate clients and was privy to highly price sensitive information (PSI), including imminent announcements of profits warnings and takeover talks. [4]