The furore around a flurry of bets placed on the date of the general election, before Rishi Sunak announced it, has shone a rare spotlight on a niche area of the gambling world. The scandal began with revelations in the Guardian about a wager placed by one of Sunak’s political aides, Craig Williams.
Three other people close to the prime minister are are being looked into by the Gambling Commission, in what has become a snowballing crisis for the Tories. But how does political betting work, how popular is it and how can inside information allegedly be used to beat the bookies?
