Memorandum submitted by Keith Johnson
THE HISTORY
TO THE
CURRENT POSITION
IS AS
FOLLOWS
In 1997 the Race Course Association (RCA) decided
that they wanted to modernise the betting ring on racecourses
and consequently asked the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB)
to consider how this could be achieved. The HBLB is a statutory
body, which since its creation in 1961 has had a pivotal role
in bookmaking issues on the racecourse.
The HBLB duly created the National Joint Pitch
Council (NJPC) to supervise and administrate the modernisation.
A number of changes were made to the way that bookmakers operated
but the main change was to the way that bookmakers were to be
allocated their betting positions.
Previously there had been a system of "dead
men's shoes" with waiting lists in excess of 30 years, now
the NJPC brought about a system of buying and selling. This was
heralded as an opportunity to enable existing bookmakers to finance
their retirement with a lump sum from the sale of their positions
and more importantly to give new blood the opportunity to enter
the profession with the comfort of a stable career option and
certainty over the security of their investment's.
The auction sales were a great success with
over £100m of positions changing hands. The publicity and
preambles to these sales used very upbeat and comforting statements
such as; at last bookmakers can invest in a career for their future
and their families future.
All the statements implied long term security
of tenure for generations to come and as the RCA were represented
on both the HBLB and the NJPC then bookmakers had no grounds to
suspect that in a few short years the RCA would seek to make all
these investments totally worthless.
Then the Government passed the 2005 Gambling
Act and with it the potential ruination of individual racecourse
bookmakers and the virtual extinction of the industry.
The Act was primarily intended to deal with
the UK's growth of Internet betting, super casinos etc but much
smaller businesses such as racecourse bookmakers have being swept
up under the provisions of the Act.
For decades successive Governments have recognised
the need to give racecourse bookmakers and their customers protection
under the law against the threat of the racecourses exploiting
their dominant position. Most of these safeguards have been taken
away under this Act.
In particular the racecourses through their
trade association (RCA) have interpreted the Act as giving them
the power to confiscate all the seniority positions (pitches)
currently owned by the bookmakers and have notified the Bookmaker
Associations by letter that this is their intent.
Consultations with the Department of Culture,
Media and Sport (DCMS) and Government Ministers lead us to believe
that this was never the intention of the DCMS but they have shown
no enthusiasm to take action to rectify the position.
If the RCA get their way, then on the 1st September
2012 they will confiscate, without compensation all the bookmakers'
pitches on all racecourses.
Many bookmakers have invested their life savings,
retirement funds and even their family homes in these pitches
and now risk being wiped out by the law of unintended consequences.
Should this happen the big bookmakers such as
the PLC's may be able to do deals with the racecourses to take
over all the prime pitches but many of the smaller family firms
will not have the resources or the inclination to pay twice for
their trading positions.
Nor should they have to.
The bookmakers pitch tenure depends on "certificates
of approval" for betting areas on racecourses, which have
historically been part of the remit of the HBLB.
The HBLB were able to ensure that plans for
any new betting areas would not merely transfer the demand from
the existing areas. Despite the reversal of the DCMS's initial
plan to abolish the HBLB the HBLB are reluctant to continue with
this duty.
This function is now to be the responsibility
of the local authorities who have no experience in these matters
and who have no enthusiasm for the task. This also leads to a
potential conflict of interests, as the same local authorities
that are now to be responsible for issuing the certificates of
approval own several racecourses.
Consequently there is an immediate need for
the tenure issue to be placed in alternative hands but as matters
currently stand the RCA have interpreted the Act as Government
blessing for them to confiscate all the bookmakers positions.
We are advised that the relevant Ministers could
sufficiently amend the Act without recourse to Parliament so as
to remove the unfair threat that currently hangs over Racecourse
Bookmakers.
This needs to be done and done quickly otherwise
lots of families face ruin through no fault of their own and British
racing could lose forever one of the key elements that make the
British racing experience the most colourful and the best in the
World.
November 2007
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