On the road to Vegas, Michael Gidley saw the light.

Of the glittering type, that is. Since losing his seat last November, the former Victorian MP has turned up as corporate affairs manager at swashbuckling online betting agency Ladbrokes.

It's a strange fit for a conservative, family-values politician. All the more for one who made a point, earlier in his political career, of decrying the impact of gambling on his constituents.

"Families in Monash are suffering because of the economic and social damage its causing," Gidley told the Waverley Leader in 2006, when he was a mere Liberal hopeful. "The continual increase in gaming losses is not sustainable and is damaging our community, economically and socially."

Just as well Michael Gidley has plenty to keep him busy. Amy Paton

And yet, here he is. Wonder what Ladbrokes was thinking! And Gidley is already operating behind the eight-ball, having some rather unfortunate history with Victorian Racing Minister Martin Pakula (Gidley was in 2011 accused of bullying two young women handing out voting cards for an opponent; Pakula slammed the resultant parliamentary inquiry as "a whitewash").

Ladbrokes was only a reluctant joiner of Stephen Conroy's Responsible Wagering Australia. And it annoyed just about everyone recently by refusing to immediately implement a prohibition on sign-up inducements that forms part of RWA's newish industry code (meaning it could use inducements to secure market share from its rivals, who have stopped offering them). So, there's plenty to distract Gidley, we suppose, from any lingering moral qualms.