A man was seen running down Buckingham Palace road last week, with his pants on fire. With deceit fueled flames bursting out of his pants, the man believed to be Malcolm George the CEO of the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), had been caught out yet again telling porkies to our Parliamentary representatives.

Just as lobbying smoothie, Mr George, had been telling MPs how betting shops are the safest places on the high street (where customers are looked after better than children at a crèche and staff with master’s degrees in gambling addiction tend to their every need), that upstart paper, the Guardian, stepped in to say, “Liar, liar pants on fire”.

In a hefty two-part piece focused on the “dangerous world of British betting shops”,  the Guardian laid bare the brutal and often violent reality of today’s betting shops – not quite the picture Mr George and his band of merry members had been painting to MPs down the road at Westminster.

Describing in detail the horrific murder and rape of betting shop staff; the violence and intimidation directed at shop workers by punters high on gambling’s “crack cocaine”, the newspaper brought forward worker after worker speaking anonymously of the daily terror they face manning the tills. All spoke of their fear – not just of punters who have lost their house, home and family to the “crack machines”, but of the interrogation and dismissal they would face if caught telling a journalist the truth.

The truth about betting shops is something the ABB CEO doesn’t want to face up to, but Members of Parliament have seen through his barrage of lies and are about to bring him and his members in for interrogation. Step forward the bookmakers’ latest nemesis, Carolyn Harris, and an All Party Group set to throw a big spotlight right on the bookies’ shenanigans. Get the fire extinguishers ready Malcolm!

Content produced and sponsored by Stop the FOBTS