MPs must not underestimate how bitterly bettors resent checks or the damage being done to racing

For more than three years now, those who bet in the United Kingdom have been subjected to unprecedented scrutiny on their finances in the form of affordability checks, first introduced by the Gambling Commission during the pandemic and now official government policy. 

Punters' initial bewilderment at being asked for bank statements and payslips has long since turned to anger, culminating in the petition against affordability checks hitting 100,000 signatures in less than four weeks, which prompted Monday's debate in Westminster Hall. 

While ministers have shown no inclination to revisit their affordability checks policy, MPs must use this crucial opportunity to highlight the calamitous consequences the government's approach is having for racing and responsible bettors.

The impact of checks is already stark. The latest Gambling Commission statistics showed that £900 million less was bet on horseracing with regulated online bookmakers in 2022-23 than in the prior year. Those figures, the most recent available, cover the period up to March last year. Since then, racing's leaders have repeatedly warned that betting turnover on the sport has continued to fall, directly impacting the sport's already precarious finances. 

Despite government promises that the proposed checks outlined in the gambling white paper last year will be 'frictionless', racing is adamant the new regime will make matters worse, not better. Industry analysts Regulus have calculated that the sport's annual income will take an additional £50m hit, equivalent to more than a quarter of total prize-money. Last week the BHA warned one in seven rural stable staff jobs will be lost as a consequence. 

It is therefore clear the government is presiding over real damage to racing – "another great British industry" being sent into decline by the Conservative government, as a furious John Gosden put it in Saturday's Racing Post – but that is far from the only reason to object to affordability checks. 

There is also the stark evidence that this policy is feeding a booming black market. In Monday's newspaper, we expose one illegal bookmaker that has operated with impunity for years, with staff openly using real names and claiming to serve more than 1,000 customers. The failure of the government or Gambling Commission to police this is an outrage, but worse is their inability to recognise that inserting so much friction into the legal market was inevitably going to result in a historic shift to the black market.

• Revealed: the racehorse owner fronting an illegal bookmaker with more than 1,000 customers  

The ethics of the government imposing restrictions on how we spend our own money seem scandalously forgotten amid this debate also. No-one disputes that gambling harm is a scourge that needs action, but mandating financial checks on consumers is a drastic and illiberal response to an issue that requires a more proportionate response. MPs should not underestimate how bitterly bettors resent this intrusion into their private financial affairs, or that it was this anger that principally fed the petition response.

Perhaps, though, if affordability checks did halt gambling harm the devastation of racing and despoilment of civil liberties would be a price worth paying. Yet the evidence for the efficacy of checks is effectively nil. In fact, logic suggests that those it is designed to help – those who struggle to control their betting – are those most likely to seek out one of the countless offshore and illegal bookmakers that are enthusiastically touting for British customers.

Everything about affordability checks indicates these are a policy designed for optics alone. Their legacy – the government's legacy – will be a flourishing black market and a withering racing industry. MPs must demand a change of course.

Read more:

Former Chancellor calls for government to rethink 'ill-advised, blunt and damaging' affordability checks 

Revealed: the racehorse owner fronting an illegal bookmaker with more than 1,000 customers  

Key excerpts: 'People don't want to provide bank statements. We've got so many people betting with us'  

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