Good news on affordability checks - but racing won't be left unscathed

The call for evidence which launched the government's review of the 2005 Gambling Act received around 16,000 submissions by the time it closed at the end of March, according to a recent response from gambling and lotteries minister John Whittingdale to a question on the subject.

The likelihood is that a significant proportion of the submissions, which came from "a broad range of interested organisations and individuals", will have mentioned the controversial subject of affordability checks, certainly based on the Gambling Commission's much more narrowly focused consultation on remote customer interaction.

That exercise, which raised the possibility that as little as a £100 net loss in one month might lead to a bookmaker's customer needing to prove they could afford to lose more, elicited a record response for one of the commission's consultations, with 13,000 submissions received by the industry regulator.