Will UK gambling ministry be chopped?

Rumours that the UK government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which oversees the activities of the UK Gambling Commission, is to be closed have been denied by a department spokesman this week.

Giving voice to the rumours recently, the publication Intergame reported that possible homes for the Gambling Commission should the DCMS be disbanded post-Olympics might be the Home Office or the Treasury.

So strong were the rumours that Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Harriet Harman, called on UK prime minister David Cameron to clarify the matter, a demand to which the coalition government did not respond.

The rumour was apparently taken seriously by the Institute for Economic Affairs, which opined that the government could save GBP 1.6 billion a year by shutting down DCMS, perhaps enabling a 2 percent cut in corporate taxation.

The minister with responsibility for DCMS, Jeremy Hunt, has recently been under pressure following disclosures at the Levenson enquiry into the UK media telephone hacking scandal.

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