Felix Faulkner, a solicitor specialising in the UK's gambling sector, gives his view on the UK government and Gambling Commission's plans for financial risk checks.
After a petition led by the horseracing industry to abolish the headline white paper proposal reached 100,000 signatures, the UK government held a formal debate on the issue on Monday, February 26.
The debate attracted comments from a range of MPs, including some whose constituencies include key UK racecourses.
Read on for Poppleston Allen solicitor Faulkner's assessment of the debate…
Financial risk check proposals lack detail
There were many comments in the debate regarding whether these checks and the damage to the industry will drag the industry back to the pre-Gambling Act days, when underground gambling was considerably more prominent.
Whether that’s true or not, I can’t comment. However, I think it is fair to say that currently, the proposed idea of enhanced affordability checks is a far way off the reality of implementation.
Significant developments and detail are needed from the Commission as to exactly how this proposal will benefit both the industry and punters alike. It is also worth noting there is currently considerable confusion surrounding what the Gambling Commission are tabling to introduce, and who it will impact
Currently the proposal in the White Paper from the Gambling Commission is to implement affordability checks to the online sector only. Although this currently will not impact the land operators, the possible impact on the horse racing industry still has the potential to be large, as customers who wish to bet will be required to prove their financial status if betting online, but not in shops or on-track.
This will have a significant impact during the big events of the horse racing calendar, such as Cheltenham, where customers may be restricted from having a flutter as they are waiting for the result of an affordability check, which may only be completed once the event is done and dusted. This, however, is only the Gambling Commission’s current thinking.
If the checks are brought in for the online sector, there will be a significant disparity between the requirements placed on online and land-based operators. In practice, this inequality between the two markets could result in division, and in order to even out the playing field there is a risk that affordability checks could be introduced to the land-based sector in the distant future.
The current proposal tabled by the Gambling Commission and the government is going to be very difficult to implement and it will be interesting to see exactly how they propose to get around that difficulty.
It is self-evident that the impact of affordability checks on the industry would have a significant impact to the customer experience and, at the moment, I struggle to feasibly see a way for them to implemented smoothly and without friction.
