British horseracing highlights opposition to affordability checks in Save our Bets campaign

Opponents argued that the Gambling Commission’s affordability checks pilot has failed.

UK.- The British horseracing sector has called on Department of Culture Media and Sport Secretary of State Lisa Nandy to pause the introduction of affordability checks. The British Horseracing Association (BHA) believes the Gambling Commission intends to sign off on the measure next month.

An open letter has been signed by 408 figures across the sport, in addition to several politicians. It argues that the Gambling Commission’s pilot of the checks, which began in 2024, has shown that they will not be fully frictionless. It argues that implementing them now would do lasting damage to British horseracing by reducing the money flowing into the sport from betting and driving more punters to the growing illegal betting market.

Did the gambling affordability checks pilot fail?

Betting operators who have worked on the pilot say the credit reference agencies used are obtaining vastly different results for the same customer and an insufficient level of data to profile customer risk. As a result, some customers would still be required to provide personal financial documents such as payslips and bank statements, but at new, lower thresholds than the current 2024 Voluntary Industry Code.

Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) modelling has suggested that with net loss thresholds set at £1,000 in 24 hours, and £2,000 over 90 days, approximately 120,000 racing bettors would face document checks, with 96,000 racing bettors then stopped from betting at the upper threshold, and nearly 45,000 of those bettors then taking their business to the illegal market.

This would cost the racing industry £13.2m in Levy payments, with further heavy financial consequences for media rights payments and sponsorship arrangements with betting operators, the BHA says.

The letter states: “It was the last Conservative Government that proposed affordability checks as part of its gambling policy to make betting fit for the digital age. While the intention was sensible, the delivery has failed. Instead of making it easier and safer for people to have that flutter, regulatory changes have only made it harder.”

The letter describes the measure as an “unprecedented state intrusion into people’s private lives”. It stresses that a survey by the Gambling Commission found that 66 per cent of bettors said they would not feel comfortable about operators using credit reference data and that over 100,000 people signed a petition against the checks in 2024.

“Despite our repeated warnings, the Commission seems intent on pursuing this highly controversial policy regardless of the consequences for Britain’s second most-popular sport. These proposals would do lasting damage to a major British industry, which provides more than 85,000 jobs, contributes more than £4bn to the country’s economy and is a leader on the world stage,” the letter argues.

“Your Government demonstrated it recognised this risk when the Chancellor used her Budget to give the Gambling Commission £26m to tackle the burgeoning betting black market. Adding a further layer of regulation right now would be at best a grave misjudgement and at worst, a gift to the criminal underworld that benefits from these illegal betting operations.”

The BHA has joined the Save our Bets campaign launched by The Sun newspaper and created an online portal for people to write to their local MP asking them to put pressure on the government to halt the checks. The timing of the campaign comes ahead of the Grand National this weekend, which could help it receive more attention.