Betfair, Betdaq and Sporting Options have called for a new code of
practice for the bookmaking industry that would bring all of the UK's 8,000 licensed betting offices up to
the standards of probity, openness and transparency that have been set by the betting
exchanges.
The exchanges set out this proposal in a joint letter to John Greenway MP, Chairman of
the Joint Scrutiny Committee for the Draft Gambling Bill.
The full text of the letter
follows:
Dear Mr Greenway,
The Joint Scrutiny Committee's report on the
Draft Gambling Bill raised a number of important issues with regard to betting exchanges, many of which have
been referred back to the DCMS for further consideration. You are on record as stating that "there is a case
for renominating the Committee once certain policy decisions have been taken" and that "there
is no reason
why the Gambling Bill should not be introduced in the current session of Parliament."
We share your
enthusiasm for the introduction of the Bill, but equally wish to ensure that the wholly legitimate interests
of betting exchangesand their customers are fairly reflected in the final Parliamentary
draft.
However, we take exception to the Committee's suggestion that some
exchange punters are "identified, regulated, made subject to the appropriate levy arrangements, and have
their status checked."
The question of registration of layers is something we discussed at length
with the DCMS prior to their drafting of the proposed legislation. The need for bookmakers to themselves
account for use of the services we offer as part of their own business return was wholly
supported.
However, given the nature of the market, with multiple operators and such a broad spectrum of betting
opportunities, it was felt to be neither feasible nor desirable to introduce financial or activity limits as
a criteria for singling out one group of punters over another.
The betting exchanges have
information sharing agreements with sporting regulators which help to underpin the integrity of individual
sports. The imposition of artificial barriers, any of which could easily be circumvented, would damage the
effectiveness of those arrangements.
It would do so through potentially fragmenting the source of
any corrosive money across a greater number of possibly less reputable operators and encourage abusers to
draft in others to open 'managed' accounts. We would then be no more able to protect integrity than the
traditional bookmakers who often do not know the identity of their customers.
This would hardly be
conducive to the objectives of the bill to keep crime out of sport and ensure fairness to the customer,
though perhaps the detail of our arguments, which we will outline to the DCMS, have not been given much
thought or time by those who call loudest for the regulation of our punters, as a cynical means to protect
their own business model.
The major bookmakers are intent on strangling the exchanges with red tape
and ultimately denying punters a betting platform that, for the first time, offers real choice, control and
value. The imposition of conditions on betting exchange punters, even were it to be possible, would
discriminate against one section of the betting public and create unnecessary bureaucracy for both the
operators and the new Gambling Commission.
Even leaving aside the rhetoric of the debate,
requiring the registration of certain betting exchange customers would bring no more information about those
customers than is already known to the betting exchange operator. As you know the audit trail of an exchange
allows operators of exchanges - and by extension the sports regulators with which they share information - to
know in full what bets are placed, when, by whom, in what size, and with what funds.
Surely the
best way to address integrity risks is to impose these policies on all regulated betting organisations. This
could take the form of a new code of practice that would require the operators of all of the UK's 8,000
licensed betting shops, to reach the standards of probity, openness and transparency that have been set by
the betting exchanges. We, for our part, would be happy to advise them on the investment required to support
a new code of practice.
We are sure that you would agree that this would be preferable to any
arbitrary punter registration system and most of all deliver the best public policy outcome for all
concerned.
Article created on 4-/-0/2004 28: 1Send this article ( BETTING EXCHANGES CALL FOR NEW CODE OF PRACTICE ) to a friend
