The final furlong?

Stephen Pollard warns of an existential threat to racing

FORGIVE THE BLUNTNESS, but I don’t think you can really afford that holiday you’ve booked this summer. You eat out far too often. And you drink way too much. What’s it got to do with me? Well, I know a lot better than you how you should be spending your money. That’s the rationale behind the so-called “affordability checks” which have sprung up everywhere you try to place a bet and which threaten to destroy racing as a viable sport. Which is, of course, the intention. In my first column here, last May, I wrote that the gambling review was “due soon”. We are still waiting, but its anticipated affordability checks are already with us as a result of bookies running scared of demands by the Gambling Commission. In 2020,…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2023

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