UK affordability check clash looming on the horizon

A showdown is brewing in Britain involving the Gambling Commission, horse racing, the betting industry, campaign groups and MPs, all over one big issue which has been fiercely debated for over five years.

This is of course, Financial Risk Assessments, as the Gambling Commission and 2023 Gambling Act review White Paper call the measures, or ‘affordability checks’ as critics in racing and betting industry circles prefer to call them.

The Commission’s decision to press ahead with Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs) – the most extensive of the two types of affordability measure, the other being light-touch Financial Vulnerability Checks (FVCs) – has seen an outpouring of criticism.

It has now been reported by the Racing Post that the British Horseracing Authority’s (BHA) attempts to gain information about the Commission’s decisionmaking around affordability checks fell on deaf ears in the months building up to the July decision.

Commission to face the affordability music?

This weekend, ..