New twist in affordability checks row demands answers from Gambling Commission

The British Horseracing Authority has become increasingly frustrated by what it sees as the Gambling Commission’s reluctance to engage with its fellow regulator during the process of piloting and launching affordability checks. Photograph: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images

Last Tuesday’s announcement by the Gambling Commission that it planned to introduce “financial risk assessments” – or affordability checks – for gambling customers seemed to mark the end of racing’s fierce, five-and-a-half-year campaign against the policy, but there has been a further twist to the extended tale after it emerged that the House of Commons’ culture, media and sport committee (CMSC) has written to the commission, requesting answers to a series of questions on the checks by 24 July.

The cross-party committee’s questions for the regulator bear a striking similarity to many of those that the racing industry has been asking – to little or no avail – since checks were first proposed under the last Conservative government in late 2020.