98% OF BOOKIES ALLOW UNDER-AGE TO BET

THE Gambling Commission has written to licensed bookmakers reminding them they must have effective policies and procedures in place to prevent young people under the age of 18 from gambling or entering a betting shop.

The Gambling Commission's undercover exercise checked all five of the major betting operators, who between them account for about 80% of betting shops. It found 98 of the 100 shops visited allowed a 17-year-old to place a bet at the counter. The legal age for gambling is 18, but staff are consistently told to check the ID of anyone who appears to be under 21.

The commission, which branded the results "disturbing", has summoned senior executives from the industry to urgent talks to discuss how to clamp down on the problem that led to licences being revoked.

Ladbrokes spokesman, Ciaran O'Brien, said: "Obviously we are disappointed by the results, not least because we put an awful lot of time and effort into this area in terms of training staff and materials. As a result of these tests we will be redoubling our efforts and making sure that we raise standards."

Andrew Lyman, senior executive of the Association of British Bookmakers, said: "We have never been complacent about this issue, but clearly we have a great deal more work to do. As a priority we will work as an industry with the Gambling Commission to improve our performance in this area."

The commission assumed responsibilty for the regulation of the UK's 8,500 betting shops in 2007, following a reform of the gambling laws. Prior to this it was the job of local authorities to police the betting shops. One of its key mission statements is to "protect children and vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling". But the findings raised questions about the ability of the watchdog to police the betting industry.

"We were told by the government that reforming gambling laws would help to protect our children, but yet again we have damning evidence that shows that isn't happening," said Don Foster, the Liberal Democrats' culture, media and sport spokesman.

"With 98% of betting shops failing this test, you have to ask whether the industry is taking its responsibility to prevent children from gambling seriously. The commission's 'softly, softly' approach is extremely worrying - sending out a strongly worded letter to these companies simply isn't good enough."

But a spokesman for the commission, which can revoke a betting shop's licence, denied that the results showed it was failing in its responsibilities.

"Through these sort of exercises we are testing the operators to see if the procedures they have in place are working," the spokesman said. "We expect to see significant improvements."

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