A significant exit has occurred from the Gambling Act Review Evaluation Advisory Group over affordability checks, as Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Advisor James Noyes has ended his involvement, according to the Racing Post.
Noyes reportedly had no choice but to step down from his position on the panel, as he believes plans to roll out the policy this month without scrutiny are ‘clearly unacceptable’ and that it is being introduced without ‘meaningful evaluation’.
Affordability checks have been criticised by several industry stakeholders since their introduction as part of the White Paper, but Noyes was among the early advocates of the measure.
However, Noyes revealed a change in his perspective when he wrote to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy last month, asking for the scheme’s rollout to be put on hold.
Racing Post reported that in a letter, Noyes said he didn’t believe it was right that affordability checks could be approved at the GC’s next board meeting on 21 May.
‘Clearly unacceptable’
Noyes said: “As someone who was invited to give expert advice to this process, it astonishes me we have a situation whereby controversial financial risk checks are being rolled out by the Gambling Commission before any meaningful – and independent – evaluation of this policy can be carried out. This is clearly unacceptable.
“I was very surprised that at no point during the meetings of the advisory group was there an opportunity to discuss the potential impact of these checks on consumer and operator behaviour, or critically, in terms of harm reduction.
“The government has a duty to ensure that its legislative proposals are evaluated in an adequate manner. In the case of the Gambling Act review, and most notably financial risk assessments, this has not happened. Instead we have a situation where there is confusion.”
Noyes even went as far as to say that the data utilised to set affordability check spending thresholds was “outdated and potentially no longer relevant due to inflation”, that ‘frictionless’ checks were stopped after different results were being found by credit reference agencies for the same customer, in addition to them being “extremely detrimental” to horse racing.
Stuart Andrew, former DCMS minister, agreed that affordability checks should be paused to make sure that they are truly frictionless for the customer.
“Gambling reform has to protect people from addiction and serious mental health harm. As minister, I was clear affordability checks must be genuinely frictionless and must not drive punters towards the black market. The government should pause and bring this back to parliament.”
The matter of affordability checks was also discussed on a recent episode of iGaming Daily.
