All Party Parliamentary Betting and Gaming Group Inquiry
Statement by The Lord Faulkner of Worcester, Chairman of the All Party Group’s inquiry into the effects of betting on sport, at the launch of the inquiry’s report.
I’d like to start by thanking you all very much for coming to this press conference this morning. I have with me around the table a number of my colleagues who sat on the inquiry with me, and I am sure that they will be very happy to answer any questions you’d like to put to them later.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all the organisations and individuals who gave evidence to us. Many of them appeared in front of us in one of the five evidence sessions we held in November and December, and transcripts of those sessions are published in our report. We also received a number of valuable written submissions, and we’ve published those too.
Before summarising our main conclusions, I should explain why the inquiry was conducted. It arose out of the work of the joint parliamentary scrutiny on the draft gambling bill, on which a number of members of this inquiry also sat.
The scrutiny committee had had drawn to its attention a number of allegations over the integrity of betting on a number of sports and in particular suggestions that the probity of racing could be threatened, partly – but certainly not exclusively - as a consequence of the establishment and growth of betting exchanges.
It was obviously not possible for the scrutiny committee to examine these allegations in detail – it had the whole of the draft gambling bill to look at within tight deadlines. The challenge was therefore taken up by the all-party parliamentary group on betting and gaming, which decided to set up this inquiry to look at the incidence of, and potential for irregular and corrupt betting on sports, and the improper use of inside information.
This report is the result of that work. We come to a number of conclusions and make 15 recommendations. We accept that the betting and gaming industry in the UK is one of the most respected and highly regarded in the world, and compares very favourably with that in a number of other countries. We found no evidence of widespread or systematic corruption in any UK-based sport.
However it became clear to us that the public has become concerned about the integrity of betting on certain sports and needs to be reassured that cheats are prevented from prospering at their expense. The use of inside information is one aspect of this.
These concerns have intensified since the growth of the betting exchanges, mainly because of the opportunities that the exchanges offer punters to bet against each other, with one backing and the other laying any given event.
We say therefore that the advent of the exchanges has brought new challenges to sports governing bodies, gambling regulators and government.
Our recommendations are aimed at protecting punters and improving the integrity of sports betting. We support the provisions contained in the current Gambling Bill to establish the Gambling Commission – out of our 15 recommendations, eight involve the Commission.
We recommend that all major betting operators sign memoranda of understanding – that includes online and high street bookmakers, as well as betting exchanges - with the sports on which they base their business. We believe that the betting industry should in due course move towards only accepting bets on those sports with which they have signed MoUs, and we say that sports should be consulted on what types of bets should be offered on their sports.
We strongly support the principle of establishing audit trails in the betting industry. We commend the steps the betting exchanges have taken to do so, and believe that the online and credit customers of bookmakers should also be covered.
We believe it is vital that processes are put in place to identify those responsible for large or unusual bets. When these arrangements are linked to the memoranda of understanding signed with the sporting bodies, it should be possible to identify those individuals who are breaching their own governing bodies’ rules on who may and who may not bet and lay in those sports.
I thank you again for coming, and invite you to put any questions that you may have.
I’d like to start by thanking you all very much for coming to this press conference this morning. I have with me around the table a number of my colleagues who sat on the inquiry with me, and I am sure that they will be very happy to answer any questions you’d like to put to them later.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all the organisations and individuals who gave evidence to us. Many of them appeared in front of us in one of the five evidence sessions we held in November and December, and transcripts of those sessions are published in our report. We also received a number of valuable written submissions, and we’ve published those too.
Before summarising our main conclusions, I should explain why the inquiry was conducted. It arose out of the work of the joint parliamentary scrutiny on the draft gambling bill, on which a number of members of this inquiry also sat.
The scrutiny committee had had drawn to its attention a number of allegations over the integrity of betting on a number of sports and in particular suggestions that the probity of racing could be threatened, partly – but certainly not exclusively - as a consequence of the establishment and growth of betting exchanges.
It was obviously not possible for the scrutiny committee to examine these allegations in detail – it had the whole of the draft gambling bill to look at within tight deadlines. The challenge was therefore taken up by the all-party parliamentary group on betting and gaming, which decided to set up this inquiry to look at the incidence of, and potential for irregular and corrupt betting on sports, and the improper use of inside information.
This report is the result of that work. We come to a number of conclusions and make 15 recommendations. We accept that the betting and gaming industry in the UK is one of the most respected and highly regarded in the world, and compares very favourably with that in a number of other countries. We found no evidence of widespread or systematic corruption in any UK-based sport.
However it became clear to us that the public has become concerned about the integrity of betting on certain sports and needs to be reassured that cheats are prevented from prospering at their expense. The use of inside information is one aspect of this.
These concerns have intensified since the growth of the betting exchanges, mainly because of the opportunities that the exchanges offer punters to bet against each other, with one backing and the other laying any given event.
We say therefore that the advent of the exchanges has brought new challenges to sports governing bodies, gambling regulators and government.
Our recommendations are aimed at protecting punters and improving the integrity of sports betting. We support the provisions contained in the current Gambling Bill to establish the Gambling Commission – out of our 15 recommendations, eight involve the Commission.
We recommend that all major betting operators sign memoranda of understanding – that includes online and high street bookmakers, as well as betting exchanges - with the sports on which they base their business. We believe that the betting industry should in due course move towards only accepting bets on those sports with which they have signed MoUs, and we say that sports should be consulted on what types of bets should be offered on their sports.
We strongly support the principle of establishing audit trails in the betting industry. We commend the steps the betting exchanges have taken to do so, and believe that the online and credit customers of bookmakers should also be covered.
We believe it is vital that processes are put in place to identify those responsible for large or unusual bets. When these arrangements are linked to the memoranda of understanding signed with the sporting bodies, it should be possible to identify those individuals who are breaching their own governing bodies’ rules on who may and who may not bet and lay in those sports.
I thank you again for coming, and invite you to put any questions that you may have.