'It could kill racing stone dead' - dire warnings of £100m hit to the sport

Financial modelling has estimated stringent action around affordability checks, advertising and sponsorship following the government's gambling review could cost the British racing industry more than £100 million a year, killing it "stone dead" in the words of one leading figure.

The possibility of intrusive affordability checks which ask customers for personal financial information such as bank statements and pay slips continues to cause concern for British racing's leadership, with the subject being discussed again in Westminster this week before the government's white paper is expected to be published in May.

One MP said such checks should be introduced for losses as low as £100 a month. It is feared if that were introduced it would either prompt people to reduce or stop betting on racing altogether or be driven to the black market.

Previous estimates have put the cost of the most hardline checks at upwards of £60m a year, but Arena Racing Company chief executive Martin Cruddace has said the figure could be as much as £100m based on a projection that between 60 and 70 per cent of punters would reject having to prove they could afford gambling losses. A survey commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council claimed that fewer than one in five punters would be willing to let betting companies access their bank accounts or wage slips in order to have a bet.

Horsemen's Group chairman and Racehorse Owners Association president Charlie Parker, a member of British racing's Gambling Strategy Group which has been dealing with the issue of the gambling review, said on Tuesday: "Industry estimates are that the total impact could be over £100m if certain scenarios around sponsorship advertising, affordability checks and so on are introduced. That's everything – levy, media rights and sponsorship – and that would obviously kill the thing stone dead.

Charlie Parker: renewed calls for racing industry to carry on lobbying ahead of the gambling reviewCredit: Edward Whitaker

"I'm sure they don't want that to happen so we've got to navigate the next few weeks and months to make sure it doesn't."

British racing's leaders have been lobbying MPs and ministers to point out the possible unintended consequences of much harsher regulation.

Parker added: "I think we've done quite well to persuade them to see the reality of the situation but what happens afterwards once the white paper is published is really important – another round of lobbying and another round of evidence and whatever else is needed."

However, Parker was at pains to make clear that racing was looking at its own role in making gambling safer and reducing the potential for harm, saying: "Obviously problem gambling is an issue and, while we are down at the same level as the Lottery for problem gambling, lots of people bet on racing.

"There has been work done on that among the cross-industry group – what the racecourses can do in betting rings for example with underage gambling, what the media rights companies can do and what the bookmakers can do.

"There is pretty smart stuff out there and they can tell if somebody is acting abnormally. There is a technology angle to this rather than a blunt instrument. It goes against civil liberties anyway, telling people what they can and can't spend their money on. There are ways of doing this that I think would be better than just wiping the sport out."

Gambling minister Chris Philp has reiterated his view that affordability checks should be "proportionate" while taking part in a House of Commons debate on Monday night about the gambling review.

Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield told the Commons that affordability checks for those who lose more than £100 a month gambling "would make a profound difference".

He added: "Some have questioned whether £100 a month is proportionate, but research by the Social Market Foundation found that any affordability checks above that level would continue to allow high losses."

Philp said the government did "not want to prevent people who want to gamble on a leisure basis from doing so or put unreasonable obstacles in the way," but added: "We do need to take action."

On affordability checks, he said they needed to be "proportionate and pitched at the right level", adding: "The data is available if operators properly use it and if the Gambling Commission has proper access to it to deliver that result. That should be a very significant area of attention in the Gambling Act review that is coming up very shortly."

Philp's colleague Rishi Sunak is among those to have voiced concern for racing, in a letter to culture secretary Nadine Dorries.

The chancellor, whose Richmond constituency includes Catterick racecourse and the Middleham training centre, wrote recently on behalf of his local industry over concerns at affordability checks, the second such time he has raised the matter having written to Dorries' predecessor Oliver Dowden last year.

Read more:

Chancellor Rishi Sunak raises racing industry's concerns over gambling review

'Change is needed and change is coming' - gambling minister on reform rally

Racing warned gambling review poses 'clear and present danger' to sport's future

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