A recent underage test purchase operation of on-course bookmakers at Cheltenham’s racecourse has revealed significant failures in their underage checks.
In November last year, viagra sale licensing officers from the council and compliance officers from the Gambling Commission ran a test purchase operation targeting on-course bookmakers at the racecourse. The purpose of the operation was to test the bookmakers’ controls for preventing children from being able to place bets.
A total of fifteen on-course bookmakers were test-purchased on the day. Ten failed the test by accepting a bet placed by the young person without challenging them or seeking verification of their age.
A similar operation was conducted in January last year when the failure rate was over 50%.
The purpose of the January operation was not to take formal enforcement action, but instead to use the outcome of the operation to identify and address operational weaknesses in preventing access by children and young people to participating in gambling.
As a result of the outcome of the January operation it was necessary for officers to undertake a further operation to assess whether there have been any improvements in the identified operational weaknesses.
Whilst the outcome of the November operation was substantially worse in terms of the percentage of bookmakers that failed, only one of the bookmakers that failed in November also failed in January with the remainder being first-time failures.
As a result of the November operation, one bookmaker’s operating licence was subject of a review by the Gambling Commission and they were issued with an enhanced ‘advice to conduct’ letter. The other bookmakers who failed for the first time were sent ‘advice to conduct’ warning letters by the Gambling Commission.
There was no formal action taken against the racecourse after the November operation because they did not breach any of the terms and conditions of their premises licence.
Councillor Andrew McKinlay, cabinet for development and safety, said: “We remain concerned about the poor compliance record of on-course bookmakers operating from the racecourse.
“The council however has limited statutory powers to deal with poor performing bookmakers because we are not the licensing authority for them and therefore we really rely on the Gambling Commission to deal formally with those bookmakers that continuously fail to adequately protect children from getting involved with gambling when they should not.
“We feel the commission is not taking a hard enough line at the moment to provide real incentive for bookmakers to step up their game and take their responsibility to protect children seriously. We will continue to have a conversation with the commission about our concerns so that we can jointly work to improve controls and checks locally.”
Ian Renton, regional director, south west regional of jockey club racecourses, added: “The results of the test purchase operation are very disappointing and mean that on-course bookmakers need reminding of their vital responsibilities to ensure those placing a bet are of legal age to do so.
“In addition we will ensure signage is prominently displayed in all communication materials around the racecourse, including racecards and big screens. We will also work closely with the Local Authority and Gambling Commission to agree a protocol for any future failures, which will be communicated to all bookmaker associations, and individual bookmakers. This may include suspension of a bookmakers’ licence if they are found in breach.”