Owners' group calls for racing to 'avoid disaster' on affordability checks

Ownership pressure group, Keep Owners In Racing, has urged racing’s leaders to ensure the sport “avoids disaster” over the potential for enhanced affordability checks for punters.

While contesting proposals by the Gambling Commission to require gamblers to prove they can afford to lose as little as £100 a month, KOIR also believes the sport has been given the opportunity to alter its relationship with bookmakers as a result of the government’s separate review into the 2005 Gambling Act.

The views form part of a proposal by KOIR to help racing recover and re-energise after the crippling impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the sport last year. Boosting prize-money and making use of £40 million in government loans are also a priority.

Calling for concerted action, KOIR co-founder Jon Hughes said: “On our list of priorities for racing our very first one is ‘avoid disaster on affordability and the gambling review’, so it’s the number one thing racing has to deal with effectively.

“There is huge common interest on this one as everyone across the sport can see that they all fall in the muck if that review goes wrong. It’s one of those nice, rare examples where people say ‘we all agree on this’ and then that’s used to trumpet how collaborative and united the sport is, when we know it’s not.

Jon Hughes: crucial time for racing, says KOIR co-founder

“So, what I say to anyone is that if all you want to do is block, inhibit and slow down progress at this crucial time for racing then get out of the sport because there’s no place in it for you.”

Around 13,000 submissions were made to the Gambling Commission as part of its consultation into affordability for remote gambling with the evidence set to be considered before any next steps.

The controversial issue comes at a crucial time for British racing and betting, with the two industries facing the continuing fallout from the Covid-19 crisis and the prospect of enhanced regulation impacting on finances.

Greater collaboration with bookmakers and stronger leadership in racing was put forward as a way of protecting the sport and helping secure and then grow its finances by Hughes, who proposed racing should seek to raise £250m in new income through routes such as global commingling of betting pools, optimising the fixture list and seeking boosted tax relief.

“There is common ground on all of these big issues and there is negotiation that will take place; we can do this stuff,” he said.

“I think with the gambling review we have more opportunity to restructure relationships with gambling operators than we’ve had in years. For the first time in a long time they actually need racing and to work with us.”

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