Monday newspaper round-up: Gambling, BoE bond sales, Thames Water

(Sharecast News) - Gambling lobbyists are staging a summer charm offensive designed to stop ministers from raising taxes on the sector, the Guardian has learned, including meeting with Treasury insiders and hosting a darts evening with Labour special advisers and MPs' staff. The Treasury is considering whether to simplify the various rates of duty applied to gambling products, a measure that the £11.5bn-a-year sector fears would increase its overall tax bill. - Guardian A private equity company accused of ousting a multimillionaire used car salesman from his own business has offered to pay €1.1m (£950,000) to settle a separate case with him. Peter Waddell filed his first high court claim against Freshstream last year, alleging that the investment firm used an independent investigation into contested sexist, racist and abusive comments "as a means of securing [his] exclusion" from his used car empire, Big Motoring World. Freshstream had acquired a one-third share in Big during 2022. - Guardian

Taxpayers would save up to £5bn next year if Andrew Bailey overhauls the Bank of England's controversial programme of bond sales, analysts have calculated. Deutsche Bank has said Rachel Reeves would be spared from transferring billions of pounds to Threadneedle Street if it stopped selling long-term debt amid a dramatic drop in bond prices. - Telegraph

Thames Water has warned that plans to build 100 new data centres across London and the South East will pile more pressure on its creaking infrastructure. The utility giant said it had identified 108 "hyper or large" data centres that will drive up demand in its region, with bosses suggesting it will have to manage water supplies carefully to ensure there is no impact on households. - Telegraph

The UK is in a "debt doom loop", according to the founder of one of the world's biggest hedge funds, who recommended people put at least 15 per cent of their savings into gold or bitcoin to help shield them from potential market turmoil. Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates in the United States, said the bond markets were too complacent about the excessive borrowing by many western governments and the risks were not fully priced in. - The Times