BHA chair Joe Saumarez Smith has spoken out about his recent experiences of gambling checks imposed by bookmakers, having had his Betfair account suspended for nine days and others heavily restricted.
“It has been extremely frustrating,” said the man who has chaired British racing’s ruling body since 2022, adding that he hoped to prove to influential figures that the obstacles facing punters are real and operating as a major deterrent.
“I am no stranger to having accounts restricted,” Saumarez Smith told the Racing Post, “but recent weeks have been particularly bad and it feels like operators are becoming more restrictive and fearful rather than less, exactly the reverse of what the Gambling Commission and the government are telling us is happening.”
Explaining the start of his problems with Betfair, he said: “I got in touch with their customer service team to ask them to put up a tennis match involving Iga Swiatek. The agent who was dealing with me asked how I was.
“Flippantly, I said I was fine apart from having cancer. The next thing I knew was, when I tried to put up some bets on the World Darts Championship, my account was suspended. Betfair then asked for a copy of my passport, a utility bill and a photo of my debit card, which I supplied within 20 minutes.
Joe Saumarez Smith: has chaired the BHA since 2022
“Despite producing all the forms they asked for, my account remained suspended while it was referred to the Safer Gambling Team. It was suspended for nine days, despite regular contact with the customer service team, asking when I could be reinstated. I was booked in for a check by the Betfair team on Thursday at 5pm, and they didn’t call me.
“It has been extremely frustrating, as Betfair is where I do most of my betting. I was one of a handful of people who went to their launch party in 2000, and I am told I was one of the first 50 external people to open an account. That does not seem to count for anything.
“It may explain why Betfair volumes on most sports are down over the past few years, if this is the sort of treatment many punters are facing, which, anecdotally, seems to be the case. You can imagine that a fair number of people just stop betting and find something else to do where they don’t face barriers or intrusive questioning all the time.”
He said that his betting behaviours had not changed in the 18 months since his cancer diagnosis in June 2023 and that he very much doubted there were any ‘markers of harm’ on his account, given it is several thousands of pounds in profit during that time.
His account was finally unsuspended on Sunday, shortly after Betfair was approached for comment by the Racing Post.
A Betfair spokesman said: “We hold ourselves to the highest standards and have specific controls in place to protect vulnerable customers, including those who tell us they are suffering from serious illness.
“We are urgently reviewing the circumstances in this case to determine what happened, but sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Saumarez Smith’s intervention comes a month after official statistics revealed a 25 per cent decline in betting turnover on racing over the last two years, a real-terms fall of £3 billion in the amount wagered.
Senior racing figures put the blame squarely on the Gambling Commission, described by Arena Racing Company’s Martin Cruddace as “unaccountable and out of control”, for pressuring bookmakers into imposing widespread checks on their customers.
Andrew Rhodes, chief executive of the Gambling Commission, responded by saying its actions were misunderstood and there were no affordability checks in place. That led to a claim from gambling analyst Regulus that the Commission is “gaslighting everybody”.
Saumarez Smith continued: “I realise this is happening to tens of thousands of punters and I don’t expect any preferential treatment because of my position. But I hope by speaking out that people realise this is a real problem and not something mythical, which some of those who are helping shape the regulations seem to think is the case.”
He added that two other major UK-facing bookmakers have recently restricted his accounts.
“Obviously, bookmakers have the right to decide who to take a bet from, but it seems harder than ever to maintain an unfactored account and all they want are customers who use high-margin products such as bet builders. I gather the traders think I am arbing, but I haven’t arbed in my life; I just want to be able to have a reasonable bet.
Betfair: reviewing the circumstances around Joe Saumarez Smith’s account suspensionCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)
“I do think it is worth the Gambling Commission taking a closer look at why operators are restricting accounts. I know they always say it is a commercial decision for each company and they won’t get in the way of that, but it might be worth the GC looking at putting in some guidance on closing and restricting accounts as part of the conditions of licensing.”
In common with all BHA employees, Saumarez Smith is not allowed to bet on horseracing. He says he bets mainly on lower league UK football games, darts, cricket and tennis, and that his normal stake is between £50 and £200. Before joining the BHA, he had a long history of betting on racing.
During his tenure as deputy political editor at the Daily Express, it was written into his contract that he would be off duty for the week of the Cheltenham Festival. He has spoken of turning over £50,000 per week in the early days of Betfair.
“Despite all the restrictions I have faced, I personally don’t believe operators should be forced to lay bets to everyone up to a certain limit, as happens in countries like Spain,” concluded Saumarez Smith. “That would help roughly two per cent of punters at the expense of 98 per cent of bettors who currently enjoy bonuses such as price boosts, enhanced accumulator payouts and extra places.
“There are so many matched bettors who ruin the game for genuine punters, who get marked as ‘arbers’ even though all they are doing is shopping for the best price.”
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