Gambling minister Stuart Andrew promises not to sign off affordability checks until he is sure they work

Gambling minister Stuart Andrew has reiterated his promise not to sign off enhanced affordability checks on punters until they have been tested and proved to be frictionless.

Andrew was speaking at the Cheltenham Festival on Thursday when he insisted he did not want people to stop betting and wanted punters to be spared the current intrusive checks being made by operators.

Last April the government published its gambling white paper which included proposals for two tiers of what it called "financial risk checks".

At the lower level, customers would be subject to checks at a net spend of just £125 over 30 days or £500 in a year, focusing on publicly available data. A second tier would kick in if a punter runs up a net loss of £1,000 in 24 hours or £2,000 within 90 days, and would entail more detailed checks of a customer's finances.

British racing's leaders fear the checks will cost the sport £50 million in revenue a year.

The proposals have already had an impact as bookmakers introduced their own checks in anticipation of the white paper.

Parliament recently debated the plans following a petition calling for the checks to be scrapped which received more than 100,000 signatures.

Andrew told the Racing Post: "I've been listening really carefully since I became the minister for gambling and I've taken the time to not just listen to one side of the argument or the other, I've wanted to listen to both sides.

"I completely understand why there is nervousness and a lot of that stems, from what I am hearing, from what people's current experience is.

"They are struggling to get bets on, they are being asked for ID, they are being asked for driving licences or proof of address or even wage slips."

Andrew said the current position over checks was ad hoc and inconsistent, adding: "We are trying to introduce a system which is much more straightforward, that is streamlined.

"I want people to carry on betting, I love a flutter myself, I don't want to stop them betting – but I want them to be able to do so without being asked for pieces of ID."

The government has promised that enhanced checks will be 'frictionless' and that the proposed system would be piloted before it is introduced.

Andrew said he recognised that there were high-worth individuals in racing and claimed that owners would still be able to bet at current levels under the enhanced level of checks.

Gambling minister Stuart Andrew attended this week's Cheltenham FestivalCredit: Michael Steele

He added: "They will highlight someone who has got into a lot of debt very quickly and that there is something a bit worrying going on there, they identify them too. But I have made sure that we do not introduce them until we have tested them as a pilot.

"I am not signing this off until I know this is frictionless and it works."

The government said it would review the levy, British racing's central funding system, to ensure that the sport would not suffer financially from the effects of affordability checks.

However, ministers have encouraged racing, through the BHA, and bookmakers, via the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), to come up with their own deal.

Andrew reiterated his commitment to update parliament next month, adding: "I will continue to meet with the BHA and BGC – I think I am meeting them next week for an update. I hope I will hear some progress and I will respond to parliament at the end of April."

If no deal is reached by that point, Andrew said: "That's when I will be updating parliament with what we are going to do, but Mr Speaker would be very cross with me if I was to make any announcement here outside of parliament!

"It's for me to update parliament and I will then give all the evidence we've been having – and I have been listening to both sides – and it will be for me to update on what should be happening but I will have to leave that until the end of April."

Asked what he would advise bookmaker and racing representatives to do, Andrew replied: "To come to a deal."

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