More punters will face affordability checks during Cheltenham Festival, warns bookmaker

It is "inevitable" that more punters will be inadvertently swept up in affordability checks during the Cheltenham Festival, one bookmaker has warned.

Next week's meeting is one of the biggest betting events of the year and there are concerns that customers who have not faced the controversial measures before will do so over the four days.

Affordability checks, which involve bookmakers asking for personal financial information such as bank statements and payslips once certain spending limits are triggered, have been introduced by operators under pressure from the Gambling Commission, although the regulator has denied mandating them.

This week Entain, the parent company of Ladbrokes and Coral, said affordability checks reduced its revenues by £100 million in 2022, and racing figures estimate they could hit the sport's revenues to the tune of £40m per year.

Bookmakers contacted by the Racing Post have said privately it is inevitable that more customers will be caught up during the biggest betting week of the racing year.

One major bookmaker said: "On the affordability side clearly we know that tens of thousands of customers change their betting behaviours as they run into the festival and we know many customers will save up their hard-earned money to spend over the four days. They spend more than they ordinarily would but they do so in a responsible way.

"Unfortunately many of those will be caught up in the thresholds that are there for their protection. They are not intended or designed to, but inevitably they will. I think it is inevitable that more customers will be captured in the affordability net than we would have wanted or that we will have seen before, just at the time when betting every day or every race is important to them."

The bookmaker added that changes in customer activity might also trigger player safety measures. They added: "Player safety measures are largely algorithmic for most of the major operators and clearly again because customers change their betting patterns during the festival, inevitably there will be some unintended consequences which will mean we are either slowing people or stopping people.

"Even if we stop someone temporarily on Tuesday at 2.30 that is not going to go down well with many of those players. It is not because they are betting unsafely it is simply they are betting differently. We have done the best we can to anticipate those changes in betting patterns, but inevitably there will be so many more players playing that some will be caught in the net unintentionally."

Michael Dugher: "Intrusive, blanket, low level so-called ‘affordability’ checks will be universally rejected by punters"

Meanwhile, polling carried out by YouGov on behalf of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has revealed 79 per cent of punters said it was likely increased restrictions "would result in people moving to unregulated websites", while 70 per cent said they would consider a different bookmaker if they were asked to provide "private financial documents" in order to place a bet.

BGC chief executive Michael Dugher, said: "This research is the latest in a series outlining the genuine concerns of millions of ordinary punters who feel that the people making decisions about the future of betting are out of touch and have never had a bet in their lives.

"We want to see genuinely non-intrusive checks, which use technology to carefully target and protect the tiny minority of vulnerable punters, but intrusive, blanket, low level so-called ‘affordability’ checks will be universally rejected by punters."

Have you been affected by intrusive affordability checks in the build-up to Cheltenham? If so, we would like to hear from you. Email us (editor@racingpost.com) with the subject 'Affordability checks' to share your experiences and contact details

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