Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Written Evidence


Memorandum submitted by Angus Crichton-Miller

  I read with great interest the coverage of the inquiry regarding on-course bookmakers' pitches which you chaired.

  I was deeply involved in the administration of horseracing from 1997-2001. During that period I was Chairman of the Racecourse Association and a member of both the British Horseracing Board (BHB) and the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB). It was during that period that the National Joint Pitch Council (NJPC) was formed and the first sale of bookmakers' positions took place. I actually attended the first sale, which was at Sandown Park in December 1998.

  My reason for writing is straightforward. As someone who knew exactly what the issues were at that time, not least the crucial matter of security of tenure, I cannot sit idly by while, at least according to the Racing Post, various bookmakers and others, including Clive Reams, claim that potential buyers were assured that any pitches bought would enjoy the same rights as those then enjoyed in perpetuity. That is an extremely serious lie that needs to be challenged. At no stage did the Levy Board or NJPC make any such commitment. Indeed, at the first sale, the question of security of tenure was raised. The answer given was that no guarantee could be given, and that, effectively, any purchaser was merely putting themselves in the same position as the bookmaker whose rights he/she was acquiring.

  The bookmakers who bought pitches at the sale knew they were not acquiring property rights. They knew that they were taking a chance and had to take a view about the value of what they were buying. That view would have taken into account not only the limited rights, but the future of the individual racecourses and the prospects for on-course bookmaking in general. One can't think of people better qualified to calculate the odds!

  I have no desire to get involved in the question of what should now happen, but I did not want the Select Committee to be blatantly misled on a point which is fundamental to any deliberation of the matter.

November 2007





 
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