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Gambling Act (On-course Bookmakers)

Thank you, Mr. Conway; I welcome you to the proceedings this morning. I thank right hon. and hon. Members of all parties for their words of welcome to me in my new ministerial role, and I am delighted that my hon. Friend the Member for Livingston (Mr. Devine) was able to secure the debate. It would be foolish of me to underestimate or to fail to understand the high level of interest in on-course betting and the emotion that the issue generates, not least because of the passionate speeches made here today by hon. Members, but also because of the many letters that my Department has received. I have read through the previous debates, and I understand many of the issues that need to be considered. My predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Central (Mr. Caborn), wrote to hon. Members about some of the matters that were raised in the previous debate. This is my first opportunity to offer my thanks to my right hon. Friend for his work as Minister for Sport. He will be a hard act to follow. My hon. Friend the Member for Livingston, like his predecessor in the constituency, the late Robin Cook, has a great love for and appreciation of British horse racing. I share his enthusiasm for that great sport and for the heritage, tradition and characters that go with it. I have shared racing day experiences with many hon. Members who are present today. I agree that a key part of the experience of live horse racing is to be able to place a bet with a bookmaker on the race course. It is exactly because we want to preserve that experience and encourage more people to enjoy live racing that we have maintained in the Gambling Act 2005 the right of bookmakers to be allowed into betting rings on race courses to take bets. Before I address my hon. Friend’s specific points, it might be helpful if I set out some of the background to the issue. The Horserace Betting Levy Board is a non-departmental public body that operates in accordance with the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963, as amended. The board’s main functions are to collect payments from bookmakers and use them for the three statutory purposes that relate to the improvement of horse racing set out in the 1963 Act. Since 1972, the board has also had the responsibility for issuing certificates of approval to race courses. Race courses can be issued with a certificate of approval only if they provide a place on-course for bookmakers to carry on their business. At the time in question, the National Association of Bookmakers had responsibility for the administration of betting rings, under agreement with the Racecourse Association. As has been mentioned, in 1997, after seven years of disputes, that agreement was terminated by the RCA. That is a fundamental point with respect to the relationships that have existed all the way through. To ensure that betting rings were properly administered after the termination of that agreement, the levy board instigated a review. Following an extensive consultation, the review recommended that a new administrative body should be established to be responsible for the administration and conduct of on-course betting rings. That new body was of course the National Joint Pitch Council. That brings me back to the point of my intervention on my hon. Friend the Member for Hove (Ms Barlow), which was to arrive at an understanding of what the NJPC’s role had been. I am informed that it never gave anyone the lifelong entitlement to a pitch. There were always qualifications, particularly as the new legislation came in: people had to study the intention of the new legislation. The NJPC is not a public body. It is a company limited by guarantee. The Department has no direct influence over its decisions. Its board includes a number of bookmaker representatives. Its functions are essentially administrative, relating to the conduct of bookmakers on race courses through the national pitch rules. Among other things, those rules cover the allocation of pitches to on-course bookmakers. It is a condition of the levy board’s certificates of approval that race courses observe the national pitch rules that the board has endorsed. In late 1998, the NJPC also set up a system for the auctioning of pitch list positions. That was implemented at the request of the levy board to ensure greater freedom, transparency and accessibility in the on-course market. As we have heard, it replaced the old ““dead men’s shoes”” system, whereby almost the only way to secure a pitch position was through inheritance. The auction system was a mechanism for one bookmaker to sell a pitch list position to another. Agreement was reached with the levy board and the NJPC on those auctions. My hon. Friend the Member for Livingston is right to say that under the Gambling Act 2005, the certificate of approval system will be replaced. From 1 September 2007, the new premises licences will be issued by local licensing authorities, which will have a duty to take into account the three objectives of the Gambling Act: keeping gambling free of crime; keeping gambling fair and open; and protecting children and vulnerable people. The new system of licensing will be clearer, more transparent and more consistent than ever. It will focus on the regulation of premises, including race courses, rather than on their administration, and allow race courses and bookmakers to develop a mature, commercial relationship for the first time. That is entirely appropriate, because it is good for racing and for bookies, and it is in line with this Government’s aim of minimising bureaucratic burdens and allowing successful industries to run themselves. It is not right to suggest, as some have done, that the Gambling Act itself does away with pitch lists. Although the certificate of approval system provided a certain authority to support the pitch list system, the lists themselves have never been recognised in statute. They do not, and never have, confer ownership of land to any of the pitch-list place holders, and it remains open for race courses and bookmakers to retain the existing system, or similar arrangements, if they so wish. I freely recognise that the RCA’s announcement that it will cease to recognise the lists from September 2012 has caused great consternation among bookmakers, as has been said today.