New code on affordability checks is a hard-won victory, but concerns remain

If ever anyone feared that concerns about invasive, blanket affordability checks would not be listened to, the arrival of the interim checks code today is reassurance that they have not fallen on deaf ears. The new code, under which financial documents should not be required before net deposits of £25,000 per annum, does not roll back affordability checks, cannot undo the damage already caused, and leaves plenty of questions unanswered – but it is, at long last, a step in the right direction.

It should be borne in mind that it was only a few years ago that the Gambling Commission proposed affordability checks should be triggered at spend of just £100 a month. The years since, during which inconsistent, intrusive and opaque checks were rolled out across all major bookmakers, have often seemed like a long rearguard action against a powerful anti-gambling coalition spanning politicians, academics, regulators and much of the media.

But gradually the arguments against sweeping affordability checks – the brutal consequences for racing, the boost to the black market, the invasion of privacy, the lack of evidence of a positive impact on gambling harm – have been heard by those in power and acknowledged as holding merit.

The result is today's interim code on checks, the product of months of discussions between the Betting and Gaming Council, the Gambling Commission and the government following an acceptance that the status quo could not stand. That this has come about is down largely to relentless pressure from racing, its media, its small band of parliamentary allies, and above all from you, its fans and followers.

It is welcome that the concerns you raised have been listened to and credit is due to ministers Lucy Frazer and Stuart Andrew for delivering on their promises to act. Yet it would be naive to conclude that the problems of checks are in any way resolved. The new thresholds, high as they are compared to the white paper proposals, will still catch the high-staking punters on which racing's income is disproportionately reliant. Anti-money laundering checks, unless addressed via a separate agreement, will continue to trigger requests for documents at lower levels of spend, causing enormous confusion and frustration for punters.

The prospect of the 'frictionless' enhanced checks, which are to be trialled over the coming months and will ultimately replace the interim checks, also still hangs over the sport, with grave concerns about how these will work and the impact they will have.

Above all, checks have already caused severe damage. Betting turnover and hence revenue to racing has plummeted since the introduction of checks, with perhaps £1.75 billion in turnover lost in the financial year 2022-23 alone. Tens of thousands of responsible bettors have been inconvenienced and infuriated by invasive checks, with an unknown number abandoning the sport or turning to the black market in response.

A belated outbreak of common sense cannot reverse those consequences. The interim checks code is a welcome step towards resolving an entirely avoidable problem. The hope now must be that bookmakers, the government and the Gambling Commission will rigorously and consistently pursue a newly proportionate approach, one that balances the protection of consumers with the protection of their right to gamble without onerous interference.

Read these next:

New interim affordability code introduces £25,000 threshold for submitting financial documents 

Explainer: how the new interim code for affordability checks will work in practice 

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