'They want to undermine betting as an activity' - Jockey Club chief Nevin Truesdale hits out at Gambling Commission

Outgoing Jockey Club chief executive Nevin Truesdale has accused the Gambling Commission of wanting "to undermine gambling as an activity" following the emergence of British racing's betting black hole. 

He was also stinging in his criticism of affordability checks, stating that they "do not work" and are not addressing the issue of problem gambling. 

Truesdale's criticism comes days after some of British racing's major powers joined forces to blame the sport's turnover crisis on an "unaccountable and out of control" commission, a statement the organisation's chief executive Andrew Rhodes subsequently labelled "unfair" and based on "significant misunderstandings" in a letter to the Racing Post.

Official statistics released recently showed online racing turnover had fallen to £8.37bn in the year to the end of March, compared to approximately £10bn two years previously. Compared against expectations if turnover had grown in line with inflation, it represented a decline of £3bn or more than 25 per cent in real terms.

The main reason for the sharp fall in betting turnover has been attributed to the impact of affordability checks on punters.

Speaking on ITV's Opening Show, Truesdale, who is stepping down from his role as Jockey Club CEO at the end of the month, echoed plenty of the points raised by Arena Racing Company chief executive Martin Cruddace in his statement this week, which had the backing of groups including the National Trainers Federation (NTF), Racehorse Owners Association (ROA) and Racecourse Association (RCA).

He said: "I think we have a Gambling Commission who wants to stop people gambling seamlessly. The Gambling Commission’s remit is to facilitate safe gambling; what they seem to be slipping in to is that they actually want to undermine gambling as an activity. They are in danger of slipping into an anti-gambling mode when they should be facilitating safe gambling. There is a massive difference."

Truesdale played an instrumental role in rallying the sport against affordability checks as a petition he launched on behalf of the industry received more than 100,000 signatures in less than a month, resulting in a Westminster Hall debate by MPs on the subject.

He said: "Affordability checks do not work. They do not address the underlying problem, that has always been our position. All they do is drag people into the unregulated market, which is part of the reason we’ve seen this significant reduction in online turnover. It's a very serious issue for the sport and it's one we've been lobbying very hard against. 

"But there seems to be an ethos within our public institutions to say that regulation of these things is always a good thing. We all want to address problem gambling, but the measures need to be proportional. They need to be properly, rationally laid out, and they need to be targeting the actual people with an issue, which is a very small proportion of people. 

"Racing is a very low-risk gambling activity compared to other activities. These are the sort of messages racing has been trying to get across in parliament and beyond."

Truesdale admitted racing could have been better equipped to deal with the financial headwinds by offering a better product to punters.

"Racing has not always moved as quickly as it could have done with innovating its product," he said. "If you look at what other sports have done around multi-leg bets, accas, bet builders and that sort of stuff, it has maybe given those sports more of an allure.

"All sports are down, but it's really important to make our betting product more attractive. We can and should help ourselves here as well." 

Truesdale stressed the importance of the sport renewing talks over levy reform with the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC). Negotiations were close to a conclusion earlier in the year only to be halted in May when Rishi Sunak called a general election.

"We need to get those discussions going again because the new gambling minister Baroness Twycross has been very clear that she and her government want a deal to happen," he said. 

"It is incumbent on us in racing and on the BGC to sit down and revisit that deal in good faith and that's what will happen over the next few weeks."

The Gambling Commission was contacted for comment.

Read more on racing's black hole here:

Betfair founder and owner-breeder Andrew Black warns about spiralling impact of £3 billion black hole 

'My betting is down by more than 99 per cent' - Royal Ascot-winning owner who turned over up to £1m a day bemoans impact of checks 

The £3 billion black hole: calls for urgent action on affordability checks as online betting turnover on racing crashes 

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