UK gambling chief has pushed back against criticism that betting giants have lobbied with government over the upcoming white paper.

CEO of Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) Michael Dugher said in a tweet [Sunday]: “For the record, we’ve repeatedly met with ministers, officials and advisers across government.”

“Government should rightly engage about future changes with an industry that pays £4.5bn in tax & supports 119,000 jobs. Government have also met anti-gambling campaigners and that’s how it should be too”, he wrote.

The comments come after The Observer reported that documents released under freedom of information laws showed that executives from Bet365, Flutter and Entain, held an online meeting with the Treasury and Revenue and Custom tax specialists last year to raise concerns about excessive regulations in the market.