Gambling companies spend a fortune each year on sponsoring sports clubs and sports organisations; £40M a year according to this report (link below). You don’t shell out that sort of money collectively as an industry if the income results don’t support the premise that it is a good way to advertise.
This is a commercial operation not members of a company’s Board altruistically bunging a few quid to keep the club they’ve supported all their lives afloat. There have been such people in the past, probably still are a few, but the days when clubs were kept going by men like Sir John Hall (Newcastle Utd) are pretty much gone in sports top tiers. Yet, if this report is accurate the recipients of the cash say it makes no difference.
The question therefore becomes – is someone telling big porkie pies or do the big gambling firms have media and advertising Directors who are incompetent? I am pretty sure I know the answer to that question; sadly, although I suspect most of the MPs on the committee can also see the flaw in the case submitted can they be trusted to act on it. Given the recent scandals surrounding the whole of the Westminster political circus that is also doubtful.
See https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61033156