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A UK petition to halt the implementation of betting financial risk checks has swiftly gathered thousands of signatures.
The petition, which calls to “abandon” affordability checks, was launched by Nevin Truesdale, the CEO of The Jockey Club, and has a deadline of May 1, 2024.
The petition quickly gathered more than 10,000 signatures, which means the government must respond to it. If it gathers 100,000 signatures it must be considered for debate in parliament.
The petition states: “We believe such checks — which could include assessing whether people are ‘at risk of harm' based on their postcode or job title — are inappropriate and discriminatory.”
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) said on social media that British Racing launched the petition as it “has been warned that these checks could have a 'catastrophic' impact on the industry”.
The petition claims “proposed checks could see bettors having to prove they can afford their hobby if they sustain losses as low as £1.37 per day.
“We accept the need to help those with problem gambling but more intrusive checks triggered at a higher threshold risks bettors moving to the black market where there are no consumer protections or safer gambling tools. We are concerned there will also be a negative impact on British horseracing’s finances due to a reduction in betting turnover and resulting fall in Levy yield."
On September 7, Gambling Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes published a blog outlining what he called “misconceptions” surrounding affordability checks.
The blog outlined two levels of checks, the first being “light touch financial vulnerability checks” designed to be “unintrusive checks, using publicly available data at moderate levels of spend”.
“The Government and the Gambling Commission are proposing for consultation that these checks be conducted at £125 net loss (accrued bonus funds and re-staked winnings would not be included) within a rolling 30-day period or £500 within a rolling 365-day period,” the blog states.
The second more detailed check, a “financial risk assessment”, has been proposed for losses greater than £1,000 within a rolling 24 hours or £2,000 within 90 days (accrued bonus funds and re-staked winnings would not be included). Additionally, it has been proposed that the triggers for enhanced assessments should be lower for those aged 18 to 24 years old.
