Wetherspoons has fired back at the Financial Times after a provocative analysis suggested its gambling machines may rival food sales in profitability.
The FT’s calculations focused on the pub giant’s gaming machines, which represented just 3.4% of group revenue in 2025 but carry potentially higher margins due to leasing arrangements.
Wetherspoons issued an unusually detailed rebuttal, accusing the newspaper of “voodoo economics” and pointing out that food sales remain more than 10 times larger than machine revenues.
The company also noted that gaming machine revenue as a share of total sales has actually fallen dramatically since its original stock market flotation.
While the debate may seem academic, it raises a genuine regulatory question about how gambling machines inside pubs are treated when reform returns to the political agenda.
Meanwhile, a major Reuters investigation this week alleged that a vast Iranian gambling network spanning more than 2,000 websites has become part of a broader operation moving billions of dollars through crypto markets.
At the centre of the story is Shelbit, an unlicensed Dubai-based crypto exchange that Reuters says processed at least $4bn in transactions since May 2024.
Blockchain analysts identified links between Shelbit, Iranian gambling operators, the country’s central bank, and a range of sanctioned entities.
The gambling network was promoted by two Iranian influencers, Sasha Sobhani and Pooyan Mokhtari, who denied involvement in money laundering, sanctions evasion, or links to Iranian state institutions.
Dubai’s virtual asset regulator, VARA, confirmed it had taken enforcement action against Shelbit for operating without a licence and later ordered the company to cease activity over alleged breaches relating to money laundering and terrorism financing controls.
The investigation also examined allegations that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had taken control of parts of the country’s online gambling sector to move money internationally despite economic restrictions.
For the broader gambling industry, the Reuters story is a sharp reminder that digital infrastructure enabling global reach can also create opportunities for illicit finance.
Elsewhere, a Guardian piece explored whether prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi could gain a foothold in the United Kingdom after explosive growth in the United States.
The story was prompted by former RAF pilot Dode Dahroug, who convinced his teenage son he had football clairvoyance by watching Polymarket’s live data feed slightly ahead of his television broadcast.
Prediction markets have attracted significant trading volume in the US by arguing they are financial products rather than traditional wagers, placing them under Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight rather than state gambling regulators.
The UK Gambling Commission has previously indicated that sports prediction markets would require a gambling licence, while the Financial Conduct Authority has raised concerns around betting-style financial products.
The Guardian found that UK users could access Polymarket relatively easily using a VPN, despite the platform’s terms prohibiting access from the country.
Analysts have also cautioned that eye-catching trading volume figures can exaggerate actual money at risk, because positions can be repeatedly traded without new capital entering the market.
UK political events, including byelections, have already attracted prediction market activity, suggesting a genuine appetite exists among British users willing to navigate regulatory barriers.
For the gambling industry, prediction markets present both a competitive threat and a potential opportunity, arriving in familiar territory but wrapped firmly in the language of finance rather than betting.
