Sports Betting News: Racing Post Hits Back at UK Gambling Commission

The row between the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) and the Racing Post over affordability checks has ramped up this week, with each side blasting the other on the internet.

UKGC Chief Executive Officer Andrew Rhodes struck the first blow, accusing the Racing Post of running ‘imbalanced stories’ about its affordability checks consultation.

Racing Post Editor Tom Kerr quickly hit back, claiming that Rhodes’ open letter ‘did not engage meaningfully with the many concerns raised by our readers and contributors’.

Read on as we take a closer look at the ongoing row between the UKGC and the Racing Post.

Rhodes’ letter to Racing Post readers claimed that an estimated three percent of accounts on UK betting sites would be impacted by the industry’s proposed affordability checks.

He rejected claims that punters would be required to provide gambling operators with access to their full bank account data and any information shared would remain completely private.

Rhodes also criticised the Racing Post for failing to mention that any affordability checks would not impact someone’s credit rating or damage credit scores.

He insisted that the UKGC was committed to implementing checks that would be ‘delivered frictionlessly for the vast majority of customers who would be checked’.

Kerr swiftly took Rhodes’ comments to task, claiming his suggestion that affordability checks remain in a ‘consultation phase’ are problematic.

He highlighted the results of the publication’s Big Punting Survey conducted earlier this year, which reported that one in six respondents had already been subjected to intrusive financial checks.

Kerr says this has resulted in may people being driven away from using betting sites and that they felt ‘a pervasive deep fury about the situation’.

He further claimed that the Racing Post’s readers know that ‘the current consultation is merely about the shape of the next in a series of attacks on their freedom to bet’.

Having highlighted the disparity between Rhodes’ comments about affordability checks and his own readers’ experiences, Kerr claimed the UKGC boss had deliberately missed the point.

He says Rhodes has failed to address ongoing concerns over whether the checks will be frictionless and urged him to engage more effectively with Racing Post readers.

The publication had previously offered the UKGC the chance to add clarity about the so-called frictionless checks, but the organisation declined.

Kerr reiterated that Rhodes has a standing to sit down for an in-depth interview, and urged him to accept the invitation as a matter of urgency.