Gambling Commission and Affordability Checks
Dear Owner,
The number of issues that face British Racing in 2021 continues to grow and the ROA team will be working to represent owners and support the racing industry on all fronts. In particular we are faced with a potentially hugely damaging policy proposal by the Gambling Commission around affordability limits.
The Gambling Commission has put forward a consultation on Remote Customer Interaction, essentially mobile betting, that includes proposals for blanket affordability checks when betting online on British Racing with thresholds as low as £100 per month before these checks are triggered. Advisor’s to the Industry working group have calculated that the proposed changes could result in lost revenues of more than £60m, a direct loss for the racing industry, further setting the sport and its revenues back as we look to get back on our feet post-pandemic.
Our sport has always been clear in the need to support safe, responsible gambling but these proposals are simply egregious. Blanket affordability checks and spending limits represent an obscene encroachment on consumer freedoms. It is not for the regulator to decide who can bet and how much.
Furthermore, we cannot currently identify the evidence base for putting forward such proposals nor identify the nominally small cases of harm caused by betting on British Racing this is seeking to prevent. All of this is happening away from public view, within the regulator’s review and outside the oversight of parliamentarians and the Government’s full review of Gambling laws.
The ROA are clear that if such proposals were to further damage racing’s finances and that was to further impact prize money, the sport’s future in its current guise is at risk. Owners cannot continue to see the rewards for their investments diminished further.
As such the ROA is writing to MPs to request the Gambling Commission consultation be included in the full Government Gambling Act Review and be afforded the proper due process on such a huge decision for personal liberties and the sport of racing. We are also working closely with the British Horseracing Authority to make clear to Government the potential impact on ownership and investment in British Racing.
With the UK’s second largest spectator sport already battered by the impact of COVID, a further assault on its finances could prove too much. The ROA recognise the possible ramifications to racings finances if the changes being discussed materialise and the direct impact this will have on the financial situation of all the sport’s participants.
We will continue to update you as to the progress of the sport’s engagement with policymakers and will be providing you with further updates as the formal evidence gathering process runs its course.
Yours sincerely,
ROA President