Memorandum submitted by Barry R Johnson
1. I live with my wife in Northants. I am
now 58-years-old.
2. My father was a bookmaker who owned a
small number of betting shops up until his death in 1971.
3. For many years I wished to become personally
involved with racecourse bookmaking. Because of the seniority
system of pitch movement, I knew that I would have to take my
place at the end of the queue and begin by betting on the worst
pitches. I therefore decided that this would not be financially
feasible and I pursued a business career outside racing.
4. My success in that career gave me the
resources to revisit the possibility of bookmaking for a living
when I realised that I could take advantage of the Government
appointed Levy Board decision to allow and encourage the sale
and purchase of pitches through the NJPC which not only organised
the auctions of pitches but which also had responsibility for
the Betting Ring on racecourses. As a result I began to buy pitches
and build a bookmaking business.
5. Since November 1999 I have paid a total
of £997,000 for my current pitches. I attach a list of them
as Annexe 1.[10]
That sum of money comprises a personal loan to the business of
£650,000, a personally secured business loan of £140,000
from HSBC and the reinvestment of profit over the last few years.
6. This year, my business will have a turnover
exceeding £4,000,000. It employs eight people full time,
two of whom are my children.
7. I have made this very substantial investment
and built up this business to provide, now and in retirement,
for my wife and myself. The business and its pitch asset value
are also intended to provide for the future of my children.
8. I am astonished at recent developments
whereby the RCA apparently considers that it can ignore bookmakers'
investments in pitches after 2012. I give the following reasons
for that astonishment:
(1) The Levy Board is a government appointed
body. All that has been done under the auspices of the NJPC has
been done with Levy Board approval.
(2) Everybody involved understood the permanent
nature of the sale or purchase of pitches. The NJPC auction system
and documentation is not consistent with anything else.
(3) The NJPC has deducted initially 12% and
latterly 6% from monies on pitch sales. The RCA have benefited
from these deductions.
(4) The RCA has had two members sitting on
the NJPC throughout. Only in March this year do they query the
significance of list positions. I am no lawyer, but this looks
like naked opportunism to me.
(5) The transfer of pitches has for decades
been conducted on a rigorous basis; first by list positions, latterly
by regulated auction sale.
9. I am willing to give evidence before
the Select Committee.
October 2007
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