Findings from a Right to Bet survey, encompassing over 14,000 racing enthusiasts and released on Monday, revealed that 40% of the respondents would consider transitioning to the unregulated black market if they encountered stringent affordability checks.
From Racing Post:
The results also show that more than one in four bettors have already been subjected to affordability checks and nearly one in ten have used non-regulated black market betting sites. Of the one in four bettors who were subject to a check, 63 per cent refused to comply and either stopped betting or moved on to another bookmaker.
In total, 14,465 people responded to the survey organised by the BHA in conjunction with the Racing Post, Sky Sports Racing and Racing TV. Of those, 52 per cent said they would bet significantly less, or not at all, on British racing if affordability checks came in, potentially depriving the sport of millions of pounds in annual income from the levy and media rights fees.Read more here: https://www.racingpost.com/news/gamb...-anUDW5s0ZxuY/In addition, four in ten punters who completed the Right to Bet survey said they would be prepared to use the black market to gamble. The results are in stark contrast to the view on the threat of the black market held by the Gambling Commission, whose chief executive Andrew Rhodes said that the black market was "very small, but estimates do vary" during a select committee hearing last month.
The survey highlighted punters' deep opposition to affordability proposals. More than 77 per cent of those responding to the survey opposed the idea that operators be required to conduct light touch financial vulnerability checks when a certain net loss threshold is reached.