The Jockey Club CEO launches petition against affordability checks

Nevin Truesdale， CEO of The Jockey Club， has launched a petition on the UK Government’s website protesting against the affordability checks proposed in the White Paper.

The petition is titled ‘Stop the implementation of betting affordability/financial risk checks’ and has been shared across various social media pages associated to both The Jockey Club and Truesdale himself.migh

In the official petition， Truesdale said: “We want the Government to abandon the planned implementation of affordability checks for some people who want to place a bet.

“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 proposed checks could see bettors having to prove they can afford their hobby if they sustain losses as low as £1.37 ($1.69) per day.”

This was despite a recent blog post by Andrew Rhodes， CEO of the Gambling Commission， who explained how the financial checks would be implemented.

Rhodes said: “If the player spending is considered moderate， marked at a £125 loss within a 30-day period， then publicly available data will be used to conduct a light touch financial vulnerability check.

“However， should the player lose either £1，blackjack de 000 in 24 hours or £2，000 in 90 days， then a full financial risk assessment will be conducted.”

Rhodes also emphasised in the blog post that these checks would only be viable for users of online gambling sites and as such they would not be implemented in retail betting shops nor at racetracks.

This petition was also launched quite soon after the Gambling Commission posted an open letter to the Racing Post’s readership， stating that the platform had repeatedly published inaccurate or unbalanced stories related to proposed financial risk checks.

In the petition， Truesdale continued: “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.”

At the time of writing， the petition has already amassed over 40，000 signatures.