Racing warns of unintended consequences in meeting with politician campaigners

Representatives of British racing emphasised the need for any action stemming from the government's gambling review to avoid unintended and damaging consequences for the sport when they met with parliamentary campaigners for reform this week.

The discussion was said to have been constructive, with members of British racing's gambling strategy group telling the politicians they fully supported the government's aim to reduce gambling-related harm.

The meeting with the Gambling Related Harm All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) took place as both the racing and gambling industries wait for the government's gambling review white paper to be published.

British racing's leadership has voiced concerns over the prospect of intrusive affordability checks being introduced following the review. Financial modelling of the impact of such checks, which in some proposals could lead to customers having to provide personal financial information such as bank statements to prove they could afford a net monthly loss of as little as £100, has estimated the cost to British racing's revenues at £100 million a year.

The APPG supports affordability checks but chair Carolyn Harris MP said on Friday it wanted to work with racing on the issue.

Among the representatives of racing who attended the meeting were Joe Saumarez Smith, who chairs the gambling strategy group and will take over from Annamarie Phelps as chair of the BHA at the end of next month.

A BHA spokesman said: "As part of our ongoing engagement with parliamentarians, several representatives of British racing’s gambling strategy group were pleased to meet with members of the All Party Group for Gambling Related Harm.

"We held a constructive discussion covering our respective views on the ongoing Gambling Act review. British racing’s representatives outlined that we support the review's objectives to ensure gambling legislation is fit for the digital age and reduces gambling-related harm, but also emphasised the importance of avoiding unintended consequences for our industry and the many jobs and communities it supports."

Carolyn Harris MP: 'We look forward to working closely with racing'Credit: GambleAware

Labour MP Harris, who also attended the Lambourn Open Day on Good Friday, said it had been "very good" to meet with representatives of racing on Thursday and added: "We are strongly supportive of the industry and share the common goal of wanting to reduce gambling-related harm."

She claimed that affordability checks "would impact fewer than ten per cent of gamblers and standardise the affordability checks which operators are supposed to be running already".

Harris added: "Checks would not be a hard limit on what people can spend but a soft check to ensure someone’s gambling is affordable and these checks would not apply to on-course betting. We look forward to working closely with racing on this."

The government launched its review, which promised to update gambling legislation to make it "fit for the digital age", in December 2020, with a white paper expected to be published in May.

Read more on this subject:

On-course bookies claim affordability checks will be 'logistically impossible'

'Hours and hours wasted' - the punters already affected by affordability checks

Gambling Commission to launch consultation on controversial affordability checks

Minister acknowledges racing's serious concerns over affordability checks

'It would be a massive concern' – trainers add voice to gambling review fears

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