The lucky patriot spoiling for a fight with Labour over Europe
Stuart Wheeler is “a patriot of the best and most unassuming kind”, says The Daily Telegraph. However, when he began his battle to force Gordon Brown to hold a referendum on the European Constitution, few gave him a chance.
But having made a tidy sum from popularising spreadbetting in Britain, the IG Index founder “knows a thing or two about odds”. And last week he won the right to seek a judicial review into whether it was “unlawful” not to hold a referendum. It’s a significant first step that will embarrass the Government.
Labour is pitted against a formidable adversary, not least because Wheeler seems to be an unusually lucky man. Although a dedicated gambler, unlike many others of his ilk (including “Lucky” Lord Lucan, with whom Wheeler played poker two days before his 1974 disappearance), he invariably seems to come up trumps. Phenomenally successful in business, he has been blessed in his private life too. Married to Tessa Codrington, a hippyish former society photographer and horse lover, he has three lovely and clever daughters, including the supermodel Jacquetta Wheeler.
He clearly knows how to enjoy life too – a few years ago, he bought Chilham Castle in Kent, a favourite location for costume dramas, mainly to throw house-parties. “When I was young I used to be invited to a house where they had 20 people to stay every weekend and it was fantastic fun,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. Tall and “dreamily courteous”, his wit extends to a kaleidoscopic range of anecdotes. But don’t be deceived by his plummy tones and gentle manner. Wheeler, a regular contestant at the world poker championships in Las Vegas, also has the killer instinct.
This could be down to a poor opening hand. Born with a club foot in Enfield, north London, to an unmarried Scottish mother who abandoned him in an orphanage, it was two years before he was adopted. He ended up with “laissez-faire” parents “who led a hunting, fishing, shooting sort of life”. When he finally traced his birth mother, a school teacher, she had already died.
He dates his passion for gambling to early trips to point-to-points. At Eton, he ran a book on the Derby; at Christ Church, Oxford, he ran a roulette wheel and polished his poker skills. He later became a barrister, but failed miserably. So, ironically, his entrepreneurial inspiration for founding IG Index in 1974, as he told The Sunday Times, “was being made redundant”. Wheeler had spotted a huge gap in the tax system that meant winnings from bets weren’t subject to tax.
His first scheme, run from the loft of his Clapham house, involved betting on the gold price, but he was soon offering bets on everything from cricket scores to the size of government majorities. Business grew exponentially: Wheeler made a £100m killing when he floated the company in 2000 and in 2003 sold out his remaining stake for £34m.
Aside from gambling, his other great passion is “sticking my nose into politics”. In 2001, he donated £5m to the Tories (then the single biggest contribution ever made to a UK party). Given Wheeler’s recent EU treaty coup, the Conservatives have every reason to remain grateful. One thing David Cameron should note, though: Stuart Wheeler has no time for losers.
Stuart Wheeler: “You can beat the casinos if you play perfectly”
Winners from the credit crunch can be counted on one hand, says the Daily Mail, but IG Group is “definitely one of them”: market volatility and the shorting opportunities in an economic downturn make this a prime time for spreadbetting. Widely credited with “inventing” the industry, Stuart Wheeler has done more than any other individual to put it on the map.
To date some one million Britons have dabbled in it and urban myths abound about greengrocers making fortunes. Spreadbetting is particularly popular among women, who tend to view it as a liberating way to make a punt on the markets without the worry of being ripped-off or patronised by a third party.
Wheeler claims to be fascinated “not by the risk but the odds”: he loves to calculate probabilities, “for me gambling is quite a clinical process”. His favourite game is blackjack because “there’s an ivory tower element to it... you can beat the casinos if you play perfectly”. During one Vegas session in the 1960s, he did just that and was asked to cash in his chips. “In those days, you didn’t argue in Las Vegas”.
His gambling partners over the years have included Jimmy Goldsmith, Omar Sharif, Somerset Maugham and Ian Fleming, with whom he played bridge. “Despite all the James Bond bit he was a very timid player,” Wheeler recalls. Lord Lucan, by contrast, while “good at backgammon”, had delusions about being a professional gambler: “he wasn’t”.
Wheeler’s most successful spreadbet was a punt against the Dow in 2001. “I thought you might like to know I’ve won £1.75m on a bet,” he told his wife. “Well done, darling”, she replied casually, “now, what about the horses?”
