Seven people, none of whom have any practical experience of working in the betting industry, have decreed that the everyday punter may now face invasive and intrusive financial checks if they want to continue enjoying a wager.
In a classic case of the tail wagging the dog, the Gambling Commission – despite a raft of opposition from politicians, bookmakers, punters and racing’s rulers – have effectively marked their own homework and pushed through an ill-thought out three-step process which is apparently devised to reform betting in the 21st century.
The introduction of Financial Risk Assessments, or affordability checks if you prefer, have been supposedly created and implemented to protect the UK punter.
However, it is a move that will simply embolden and invigorate a betting black market which will no doubt gain the type of clientele the Gambling Commission should be looking to protect from harm.
If an avenue of availability is closed to an addict, history tells us they simply look to navigate the inconvenience by finding an alternative way of feeding that addiction.
Bookmakers now have in place safety tools, admittedly implemented slower than would have been ideal, which seek to regulate and protect problem gamblers by highlighting issues and changes in betting patterns.
The black market has no such procedures in place and welcomes with open arms compulsive behaviour, not to mention the prospect of gaining bank details and personal information from a raft of potential punters.
It goes without saying, the latter is clearly open to huge abuse by organised crime gangs and fraudsters.
The Grand National is a huge contribitor to the annual £300m in tax revenue from horseracing
The Gambling Commission, despite being implored to take these dangers into account and review their thinking, have dismissed the concerns and run roughshod over common sense to push through their ill-thought-out ideology.
Brant Dunshea, British Horseracing Authority chief executive, has accused the government of being totally complicit in the process, claiming the decision is a ‘clear abdication of duty by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’.
Dunshea added: ‘This is the latest in a long chain of events that shows how little the DCMS has done for the country’s second-favourite sport.
‘This has all been at a time when we see other Governments around the world committing significant effort and resource to promoting their horseracing industries.’
So, why do those in Westminster hate horse racing so much?
Fact: Horse racing contributes a staggering £4billion to the British economy annually.
Fact: Approximately £300million in tax revenue is generated annually by the British horse racing industry.
Fact: The British horse racing industry employs in excess of 85,000 people.
Fact: British racecourses draw between five and six million visitors annually.
Fact: British horse racing is the second only to football as the most attended sport in the UK.
Why then, is a sport so popular in the British public’s psyche and which delivers on so many levels so systematically attacked and undermined by government?
Time and time again, British racing has been damaged and destabilised by Westminster at the very moment the country’s powerbrokers should be protecting an industry which contributes so much to the economy, while providing huge enjoyment to hundreds of thousands of UK inhabitants.
More than 250,000 race fans went to last month’s Royal Ascot fixture, 226,000 attended Cheltenham in March and Aintree’s Grand National fixture was witnessed by 140,000 patrons, extraordinary numbers for a sport which delivers the thrill of a wager alongside a brilliant social occasion.
For a government that has put great store in growing and expanding an ailing UK economy, their recently implemented taxation policy on UK bookmakers will cause betting shops to disappear from the nation’s high streets which either resemble ghost towns or are filled with vape shops and barbers.
Around 226,000 fans attended this year’s four-day Cheltenham Festival
This latest move puts more punters in jeopardy than it saves and will initiate a catastrophic drop in the betting levy which is returned to racing to fund prize money, improve horse welfare and improvements to the UK’s racetracks.
Nobody in racing is denying that problem gambling exists and striving to eradicate this harmful disease must remain high on the lists of the sport’s priorities moving forward.
Problem gambling can devastate families and cause untold harm – I have witnessed that at first hand – but so can any number of recreational activities and they are not being attacked with the same rapacious vigour that betting is.
Gambling has become a dirty word and is an easy target for those in power who see confronting and overregulating the industry as a cheap way to score political points.
However, the politicians and quangos aren’t just attacking the industry, they are attacking your right to spend your money the way you want – and that is a deeply concerning precedent to set.
