Astonishing and unacceptable: key DCMS adviser quits in disgust over plan to roll out affordability checks

A key adviser to the government on affordability checks has dramatically quit his position, saying that plans to roll out the controversial policy this month without proper scrutiny were "clearly unacceptable".  

James Noyes said he had no choice but to end his involvement in the Gambling Act Review Evaluation Advisory Group, a panel providing advice to government and the Gambling Commission on the proposals in the 2023 white paper. Noyes said he was astonished that the policy could be introduced without "meaningful evaluation". 

It has been estimated that the introduction of affordability checks – or financial risk checks as the Gambling Commission terms them – could cost the British racing industry £250m over five years. 

In a letter seen by the Racing Post, Noyes – who was among the early advocates for affordability checks but who last month wrote to culture secretary Lisa Nandy urging the government to pause the rollout of the scheme – said it was not right that the measures could be approved at the Gambling Commission’s next board meeting on May 21.

He said: “As someone who was invited to give expert advice to this process, it astonishes me we have a situation whereby controversial financial risk checks are being rolled out by the Gambling Commission before any meaningful – and independent – evaluation of this policy can be carried out. This is clearly unacceptable.

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“I was very surprised that at no point during the meetings of the advisory group was there an opportunity to discuss the potential impact of these checks on consumer and operator behaviour, or critically, in terms of harm reduction. 

“The government has a duty to ensure that its legislative proposals are evaluated in an adequate manner. In the case of the Gambling Act review, and most notably financial risk assessments, this has not happened. Instead we have a situation where there is confusion.”

Former DCMS adviser James NoyesCredit: jamesnoyes.co.uk

Noyes highlighted that data being used to set the spending thresholds at which an affordability check would be triggered was “outdated and potentially no longer relevant due to inflation”, that credit reference agencies were returning different results for the same customer preventing checks being ‘frictionless’, and that the measures would be “extremely detrimental” to racing.

In response to Noyes's resignation, BHA chief executive Brant Dunshea said: “We commend Dr Noyes for having the courage and principle to resign from this evaluation group over his concerns about its work. We share his astonishment that the affordability checks are being rolled out by the Gambling Commission before any meaningful and independent evaluation of their impact has been adequately conducted. 

“We agree with his analysis that this situation is clearly unacceptable. What increasingly appears to be an ideological desire to implement affordability checks is now impacting sound policy making. If the government does not get this right, it will only encourage further customer migration to the illegal market, just as has been observed elsewhere where similar policies have been introduced.  

"We call on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to make the membership of this [advisory] group publicly available at the earliest opportunity and continue to urge the government to reconsider this misguided policy that will have clear unintended consequences for British racing.”

Noyes's resignation follows a recent intervention by Stuart Andrew MP, the former sports minister under the previous Conservative government.

Writing on X, he said: “Gambling reform has to protect people from addiction and serious mental health harm. As minister, I was clear affordability checks must be genuinely frictionless and must not drive punters towards the black market. The government should pause and bring this back to parliament.”

The concerns come as the dangers of affordability checks pushing more punters from the regulated market into the unlicensed black market were highlighted by a Racing Post investigation showing how mainstream AI chatbots were providing advice and recommendations about how to avoid affordability checks and bet with illegal firms.

Read more:

New platform GamScore an 'interesting intervention' in gambling debate over affordability checks 

New report claims black market gambling has more than tripled to nearly £17 billion since 2019 

A question of trust: should the Gambling Commission be allowed to mark its own homework on affordability checks? 

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