Bookmaker Interventions Have to Stop – Now

Many may have naively thought that account checks and bookmaker intervention was not going to turn into a big deal. The truth is that the checks are indeed a very big deal, and they could be another nail in racing’s coffin if we don’t stop the slide.

One of the problems is that we are not on the same page as a sport. Nowhere near in fact. Martin Cruddace is ARC’s chief exec and they are one the major racecourse owners in the country.

He has gone public recently criticising the BHA and quite rightly so. I’ve heard it described as “gaslighting” recently the way the BHA is going along with the Gambling Commission’s insistence on these invasive checks on our finances. I concur.

The thing is, racecourse owners also take criticism for sitting on the BHA board, often blocking things that would benefit most of us. They also offer us up horrible conditions and facilities on race days, partly paid for by the bookmakers’ sponsorship as well as us via the frankly exorbitant drink prices.

Those bookmakers need our money to offer sponsorship and the likes. But they seem to be happy to limit us, cancel us and invade our privacy with glee. They of course are the ones taking the majority of money right out of the sport via their huge profits. What a mess we’re in.

Former MP and BHA Chair Suffer “Checks”

Westminster and the Thames
Laurence Robertson was MP for Tewkesbury between 1997 and 2024

It was revealed this week that a former MP, Laurence Robertson, had himself fallen foul of bookmaker intervention. He has since labelled the checks as “ridiculous”, having lost only around £30 across three months of betting.

Robertson was a Conservative MP for some 27 years, his constituency containing Cheltenham Racecourse among other things. He did however lose his seat at the general election.

The former MP even raised the problem of affordability checks in their current guise in parliament numerous times, bringing up the issue directly with former PM Rishi Sunak.

Robertson’s comments come on the back of the BHA’s own chairman’s comments about how his Betfair account was suspended. Joe Saumarez Smith mentioned his cancer diagnosis to Betfair, who then suspended his account and asked some very personal questions.

“Crazy” Questions

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Robertson too has told of how his bookmaker asked “crazy” questions of him having lost only £30. Bookmakers have been reported to ask players about their potential gambling problems and how their losses have affected their lives.

Affordability checks can include the requirement to provide bank statements, passports and proof of wages. And all this to your bookie. That, surely, is unacceptable.

Robertson reports that he was asked whether he was lying awake worrying about gambling losses. They also asked whether he was drinking more. If you spent £30 at your local bar, would you settle for one of the staff calling you and asking such questions? Nope. Me neither.

The idea of mass gambling losses on horse racing and subsequent harm coming to millions of people is a myth. It is a moral issue perpetuated by people who don’t bet and/or don’t like horse racing. Why are we putting up with it? Even Gamban founder Matt Zarb-Cousin wants horse racing to be exempt from affordability checks.

For those who don’t know, focus groups are often formed to deal with such issues but they are made up of medical professionals and people who have experienced “gambling related harm”. The thing is, that person in the room is the major exception, not the rule.

Many millions of us control our betting with no problems, budgeting as you would for shopping or car payments. Get this – some of us even win!

Solutions

Red Stop BadgeInvasive affordability checks and bookmaker intervention has to stop. It has to stop now. Such checks, which in a sense were always there, should only exist for those losing huge amounts of money. Even then, such checks were primarily included as part of a bookmaker’s already existing anti money laundering policies.

Even if the checks in anything like their current state were deemed acceptable by the sport, it should never have been up to the bookmakers to administer them. In fact, it’s incredibly irritating that the very people taking most of the money out of the sport are the ones allowed to question us.

The bookmakers themselves then, once again, are a major part of the problem. I say again as I’ve said before: move to pool betting as soon as possible.

Pool betting, run by each racecourse owner, has to be the solution. There’s no secret. We all know why prize money is much, much better in the USA, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia and pool betting is the reason.

This way, the sport keeps the money and not the bookmaker. We should of course administer pool betting with rules.

Tracks keep the money bet on races at their course. Out of that, they should offer a minimum percentage for prize money, keeping it high, keep prices on course as low as possible and they must upgrade facilities where needed.

This would not, in theory, be a difficult thing to put into place. The admin side is easy, the difficult thing is the stink that the powerful bookmakers would make in trying to muscle them out of our sport.

Let’s not forget though, that these are the same bookmakers who keep giving us a terrible deal while claiming that racing is not profitable for them. If it’s not making you money, get out.