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Gambling With Competence: How the Home Office Lost Control of Its Own Payment System
The ASPEN Card Gambling Scandal
The Home Office discovered 6,537 asylum seekers have been gambling with taxpayer-funded payment cards—but only after a journalist asked. For 12 months, government-issued ASPEN cards meant for food and essentials were used in casinos and betting shops while officials remained oblivious. This isn't about migration or morality. It's about a government department that can't implement payment controls any corner shop mastered decades ago.