UK Jockey Club Criticized Over ‘Short-Sighted’ Playtech Online Gaming Deal

The UK Jockey Club’s decision to partner with online gambling casino software behemoth Playtech has been slammed by some inward the racing industry as “short-sighted,” The Racing Post reports.

Under the terms of the agreement, Playtech will produce a lay out of mental object sculptural after races and racecourses owned past the venerable 270-year-old institution. The deal, for an unrevealed sum, spans casino, unrecorded casino, poker, virtual sports, and bingo.

Formerly the horse racing regulator inward Great Britain, the Jockey Club is now the industry’s biggest commercial organization. It owns 15 of the UK’s historic racetracks, including Aintree, Cheltenham, and Epsom Downs.

Horse Betting Difference

But critics say the Playtech partnership undermines the argumentation that betting on horses should live treated other than from other forms of gambling, similar cassino gaming, inwards upcoming governing reforms.

The industry is eager to emphasize the “skill-based” element of betting horses inward the hope that such wagers testament be exempt from tightened regulatory controls. It has highlighted higher job gambling rates among online cassino customers than gymnastic horse bettors.

The governing has sworn to regenerate the liberalizing 2005 UK Gambling Act, which spawned one of the most permissive regulated online gaming markets inward the world.

One proposition is to introduce “affordability checks” for customers who lose more than £100 ($132) over a stop of several weeks. This would affect customers having to cater operators with info most their income and monthly outgoings to proceed to play.

The racing manufacture has said this could cost the already cash-strapped boast £60 gazillion (US$79 million) a yr inwards revenue from betting companies. That’s because recreational gamblers would follow dissuaded from betting by the intrusive checks.

‘Poor Timing’

The Horseracing Bettors Forum (HBF) is a dead body created with the assistance of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) to represent the interests of those who play on Brits horse racing. In a statement this week, it implied the Jockey Club was sleeping with the enemy.

With the Gambling Act refresh white paper ease to live published, this annunciation seems poorly timed,” said HBF. “High street bookmakers feature re-invented themselves as online casinos, and hold knowingly conflated horseracing betting and games of chance.

In response to criticism, the Jockey Club explained the Playtech deal is nearly reaching unexampled audiences and creating unexampled revenue streams for the sport. It is non almost how play is regulated, it said.