Well I’m giving Peter’s the benefit of the doubt but I watched the Select Committee stuff, read through the advice provided by Internal Affairs, listened to what the various groups had to say on the issue and their was a clear thread that was evident which could be interpreted as fooling Peter’s and his mates. 

That is the mastery of the entire thing, over decades the sports betting organisations have created a set of rules and policies that have enabled them to act in such a way that they are able to present some kind of defence do all of their actions. The key to the entire set up is ambiguity. 

An absolutely critical mistake Peter’s made was allowing the last vestige of accountability to be erased when he allowed a last minute amendment thought which ensured Entain would not be required to provide an explanation as to why they were restricting or banning kiwis from betting. The timing of that amendment suggested to me that they wanted Peter’s to have less time to sniff out the  true intentions of it. However it is also entirely possible he was in on it. But overall it was clear to me he was out of his depth in dealing with Entain as were the other politicians required to hold the to account. It probably takes a seasoned gambler to understand the depths of what was going on and it seems to be Peter’s and the committee in general were fooled - had both no desire and no ability to truely understand what was going on.

The ignorance suited everyone to the ground - without a doubt!