The racing industry’s fight against the United Kingdom Gambling Commission’s desire to introduce affordability checks continues to rumble on, with Cheltenham’s November Meeting looking to be the site for the next phase of the argument.
When thousands of people turn up to see the racing this weekend they will be asked by representatives of the Jockey Club to sign a petition against the introduction of affordability checks. There are industry estimates that the checks will cost as much as £250 million over the next five years, hence the opposition to them.
Ian Renton, the Managing Director of the Jockey Club, has warned that such checks will lead to punters being driven towards the black market for their betting needs. The spat between the racing industry and the UKGC has been taking place rather publicly for months now, with articles published by the Racing Post taking the fight to the regulator.
Now it seems that it is being moved onto the racecourses that are under the jurisdiction of the Jockey Club, starting with Cheltenham. With tens of thousands of people likely to attend the November Meeting, it is seen as a good place to lay down the gauntlet.
What is Going On?
As part of the white paper into the gambling industry, there have been numerous changes suggested that are likely to have a major impact on betting companies. One of the most controversial ones involves introducing affordability checks on punters to ensure that they can actually afford to be placing the bets that they’re looking to place.
The checks that are being suggested by the consultation will ask bookmakers to carry out the somewhat euphemistic ‘financial risk checks’ on customers who lose £125 in 30 days or £500 in a year.
Punters that have net losses of £1,000 in 24 hours or £2,000 in 90 days will then have enhanced checks carried out on them. In essence, the checks are designed to ensure that people don’t lose more than they can afford to, but it is seen as being something of a nanny state move by the Gambling Commission and over-stepping its remit. There is also a suggestion from some that such checks will make no difference when it comes to preventing harm. Some operators already have affordability checks in place in a move to get ahead of the government, with little effect.
Jockey Club Using Its Courses
The Jockey Club has launched a petition against affordability checks, which has already been signed by tens of thousands of people. Now it plans to use the racecourses that it is responsible for to get the world out to even more punters, encouraging them to sign it. Speaking on the matter, Renton said,
“Enjoying a bet responsibly is a key part of the day for the tens of thousands of punters who will be joining us at Cheltenham this weekend, and we’ll be using our on-course channels to urge them to sign the petition.”
He continued, “We’re extremely supportive of targeted measures which directly address problem gambling and we welcome the reform of the gambling laws which will result from the white paper, but during Safer Gambling Week it’s especially relevant to highlight that the proposed and ongoing affordability checks could place those they seek to protect in harm’s way by pushing them to unregulated black markets. The petition aims in part to highlight the need for any checks to achieve what they set out to and protect vulnerable punters without wider unintended consequences, and we’ll be using the platform that the home of jump racing provides this weekend to get as many people as possible who have not signed the petition to do so.”
A recent race at Fakenham was named ‘Save Our Sport Sign The Petition Handicap Hurdle’, whilst ‘Save Our Sport’ was written across the front of the race card. There was also a QR code that sent people directly to the petition, with the aim being to get as many signatures for it as possible.
If it reaches 100,000 signatures then there is a chance that it will be debated in parliament. There are some prominent MPs who oppose the affordability checks, such as MP Philip Davies, whose wife, MP Esther McVey, has recently been given a new role in government.
How Bad Will It Be?
With the Jockey Club looking to use its considerable influence in the industry in order to put pressure on the government to abandon the affordability checks altogether, the obvious question to ask is around how bad such checks would actually be.
In the white paper, the suggestion was that affordability checks would impact the sport to an amount of between £8.4 million and £14.9 million. Those aren’t small amounts, but the racing industry believes that they grossly under-estimate how bad the impact will be. Analysts are concerned with how the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have reached those numbers.
The suggestion is that the numbers will be accurate if just three percent of accounts are affected. There is also a belief from the UKGC that such checks would be ‘frictionless’. Experts feel that the impact from the levy has been under-stated, failing to account for how important a small cohort of high-staking punters actually are to racing.
The likely impact is more likely to be around £20 million according to some, with others thinking that it might be worth around £250 million to the racing industry over the next five years. Whilst this figure should obviously be taken with a pinch of salt, it is still concerning.
Then there is the idea of some punters being driven to the black market in order to place their bets. Part of the appeal of the United Kingdom for gambling companies is that it is well-regulated, which would obviously not be the case if people started turning to illegal sites in order to place bets without having their finances checked.
It would also mean large sums of money not being paid to the government in the form of tax, which would be another blow. Quite how many people would actually turn to the black market isn’t clear, but it obviously has to be taken into account by the government.