British parliamentarians spent Monday consumed by a vote of confidence against prime minister Boris Johnson but the following afternoon, a couple of dozen MPs spent their time on a very different topic.
In a wood-panelled room off Westminster Hall, a special debate took place on “the impact of the collapse of Football Index”, the gambling company that was ubiquitous in the game before imploding spectacularly last March.
One MP mentioned The Athletic’s recent story about a former Football Index officer running a new website trading “shares” in players, while another mentioned an earlier story about company owners spending £15 million of customers’ money on a global expansion plan as the site collapsed.
MP after MP shared harrowing stories of constituents who had their lives ruined by the collapse, with many demanding the government compensate those who lost out to what several MPs described as a “Ponzi scheme” after virtual footballer shares worth £120 million became worthless.
Unfortunately for them, the government’s representative at the debate did not grant their wish.
“We do not think it would be appropriate for the government to use public funds to cover losses to individuals resulting from the collapse of a gambling company,” said Nigel Huddleston MP, a minister at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Football Index was a company regulated as a gambling website but marketed itself as a “football stock market”. Users would…
