Andrew Rhodes, chief executive of the Gambling Commission, has hit back over concerns about the black market in the UK.
The government is deep into its first tranche of consultations on the long-awaited white paper on gambling reform published in April.
Giving evidence to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Select Committee on Tuesday, Rhodes insisted that the black market is less of a concern than has been made out.
As reported by the Racing Post, he said the size of the black market in the UK is “very small, but estimates do vary.”
He added: “Every time I’ve heard someone say to me, 'Based on what’s happening here, people are going to the black market', I have asked them the same question, 'Tell me where'.
"And I have not once had an answer. I have not once been given the name of an operator or a person or a location or anything I can act upon and I have consistently asked that question every time.
"There's undoubtedly a risk that if people cannot gamble in the legitimate industry for a number of reasons they may go somewhere else so we have to get the balance right which I think is what the white paper is trying to do."
Affordability checks have been a major focus of the white paper’s early stages and elsewhere in the hearing, with Rhodes admitting this has been reflected in the consultation responses.
He said: “We’ve had around 1,500 responses to the consultations thus far,” said Rhodes. “Most of those, if not nearly all of them, are under the area of financial risk checks, which is the most challenging part of what we’re doing at the moment.”
