UK Government Rejects Tougher Regulation Of Betting Exchanges

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

16 June 2004

Betting exchanges Betfair, Betdaq and Sporting Options on Monday welcomed a decision by the UK government to ignore recommendations made by a Parliamentary Joint Scrutiny Committee earlier this year to impose more stringent regulations on them and their counterparts.

Although the government adopted 121 of the 139 recommendations made by the Committee, it rejected proposals which would set a threshold on the amount of money which could be traded by those laying bets, above which users would be regulated and taxed as professional bookmakers.

In a joint statement, the three exchanges announced that:

"The key statement in today’s response to the Joint Scrutiny Committee report brought home the fact that when they bet in a properly regulated environment, betting exchange customers represent no more of a threat to the rest of the betting public or the integrity of sport than customers of traditional bookmakers."

"The government has therefore underlined the folly of singling out sections of the betting public for individual licenses, and endorsed the view that betting exchange customers should not in any way be treated differently from customers of the traditional betting shop."

They also suggested that discriminating against larger gamblers in the manner proposed by the Parliamentary Committee would "encourage them to find alternative operators in unregulated environments, and end the model in the UK".

The amended Gambling Bill will, however, oblige all users of betting exchanges to register prior to using the service, and the exchanges themselves will need to report individual transactions above a certain size to the Gambling Commission.

Recommended