Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963

There shall be a Horserace Totalisator Board (in this Act referred to as “the Totalisator Board”) which shall be a body corporate and have perpetual succession and a common seal.

The Totalisator Board shall consist of F1a chairman and such number of other members as the Secretary of State may determine, all of whom shall be appointed by the Secretary of State and hold and vacate office in accordance with the terms of the respective instruments under which they are appointed.

The Totalisator Board may pay to any member of the Board such remuneration, and travelling, subsistence or other allowances at such rates, as the Board may with the approval of the Secretary of State determine:

The Board may pay such pension or gratuity to or in respect of any member of the Board as the Board may, with the approval of the Secretary of State, determine.

The Totalisator Board may appoint officers, servants and agents on such terms as to remuneration, pensions or otherwise as the Board may determine.

The Totalisator Board may regulate their own procedure and make standing orders governing the conduct of their business.

No act or proceeding of the Totalisator Board shall be questioned on account of any vacancy in the number of the members thereof or on account of the appointment of any member having been defective.

Except where the context otherwise requires, any reference in any Act or other document to the Racecourse Betting Control Board shall be construed as a reference to the Totalisator Board.

Where faciltites for sponsored pool betting are being provided on an approved horse racecourse by the persons having the management of that racecourse, any amount deducted by those persons under subsection (3)(a) of this section shall be paid to the Totalisator Board, but the Board may pay to those persons the amount of the expenses shown to the satisfaction of the Board to have been properly incurred by those persons in connection with the provision of those facilities.

Nothing in this Act shall be construed as restricting the betting transactions which may be effected by way of sponsored pool betting to betting transactions upon the result of a single race, or upon the results of races run on a particular racecourse or on a particular day, or as preventing the Totalisator Board from giving credit in any betting transaction.

Any person appointed to be a member of the Levy Board under subsection (2)(a) of this section shall hold and vacate office in accordance with the terms of the instrument under which he was appointed; and any person appointed to be a member of the Board under F5subsection (2)(b) of this section may be removed from the Board at any time by the body by whom he was appointed.

The Jockey Club, F5(incorporating the National Hunt Committee)F33or the Bookmakers' Committee may from time to time appoint a person to act in the place of such a member of the Levy Board as is mentioned in F34subsection (2)(b) or (d), as the case may be, of this section at any meeting of the Levy Board at which that member is unable to be present, and while so acting any such person shall be deemed for the purposes of any act or proceeding of the Levy Board to be a member of that Board.

The Levy Board shall be a body corporate and shall have perpetual succession and a common seal.

The Levy Board may pay to the chairman and the two other members appointed by the Secretary of State such remuneration, and to any member of the Board travelling, subsistence or other allowances at such rates, as the Board may with the approval of the Secretary of State determine.

The Levy Board may pay such pension or gratuity as the Board may, with the approval of the Secretary of State, determine, to or in respect of the chairman and any other members appointed by the Secretary of State.

The Levy Board may appoint officers, servants and agents on such terms as to remuneration, pensions or otherwise as the Board may determine.

The Levy Board may regulate their own procedure and make standing orders governing the conduct of their business.

No act or proceeding of the Levy Board shall be questioned on account of any vacancy in the number of the members thereof or on account of the appointment of any member having been defective.

For the purposes of the contributions such as are mentioned in section 24(1) of this Act to be made by bookmakers, there shall be a committee, which shall be known as the Bookmakers’ Committee, constituted in such manner as the Secretary of State may, after consultation with any body appearing to him to be representative of the interests of bookmakers generally, by regulations made by statutory instrument provide.

The Bookmakers’ Committee may regulate their own procedure and make standing orders governing the conduct of their business.

No act or proceeding of the Bookmakers’ Committee shall be questioned on account of any vacancy in the number of the members thereof or on account of the appointment of any person as a member thereof having been defective.

The contributions such as are mentioned in section 24(1) of this Act to be made by bookmakers shall be paid by way of a levy in respect of each levy period in accordance with a scheme having effect for that period under this section; and in this Act the expression “levy period” means a period of twelve months beginning with 1st April in any year.

Not later than such date before the beginning of any levy period as the Levy Board may determine, the Bookmakers’ Committee shall make recommendations to the Levy Board with respect to the scheme to have effect under this section for that period, and those recommendations shall take the form either of a draft scheme or of a recommendation that the current scheme shall continue to have effect without amendment or with specified amendments.

If the Levy Board approve the recommendations aforesaid, or those recommendations as revised by the Bookmakers’ Committee in the light of any observations thereon made to the committee by the Board, the scheme so recommended and approved shall have effect accordingly for the levy period in question.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F9

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F10

An assessment notice issued by the Levy Board in the case of any bookmaker for any levy period shall be conclusive as to his liability to the levy for that period and the amount payable by him by way thereof unless not later than twenty-eight days after the notice is served on him he gives to the Board notice in writing of appeal therefrom.

Any amount assessed as payable by any bookmaker by way of the levy in respect of any levy period shall F11(except to the extent of any payments on account) become due twenty-eight days after notice of the assessment has been served on the bookmaker or, if he appeals therefrom in pursuance of the foregoing provisions of this section, on the determination or abandonment of the appeal, and shall be recoverable by the Levy Board as a debt due to them.

Upon the discharge by a bookmaker of his liability by way of the levy in respect of any levy period F12in accordance with the notice of assessment issued in his case, the Levy Board shall issue to him a certificate in writing to the effect that he has done so, and any such certificate shall be conclusive evidence of the facts stated therein.

An assessment notice may be served on any bookmaker either by serving it on him personally or by sending it to him by post at his usual or last-known residence or place of business in the United Kingdom or, if the bookmaker is a company, at the company’s registered office.

The chairman of any such tribunal shall vacate his office on the day on which he attains the age of seventy years; but this subsection is subject to section 26(4) to (6) of the Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993 (power to authorise continuance in office up to the age of seventy-five years).

The procedure of any such tribunal shall be such as the Lord Chancellor or, in the case of a tribunal established for Scotland, the Lord President of the Court of Session may by rules prescribe; and any such rules shall be made by statutory instrument, which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

The Levy Board shall pay to the members of any such tribunal such remuneration as the Board may with the approval of the Secretary of State determine and any travelling and other expenses reasonably incurred by them as members of the tribunal.

The Levy Board shall provide any such tribunal with such secretarial and other facilities as may appear to the Board to be necessary or expedient, and, without prejudice to subsection (7) of this section, shall pay any expenses incurred by the tribunal for the purposes of their functions with the approval, whether general or special, of the Levy Board.

If any such tribunal thinks it just so to direct in allowing any appeal by a bookmaker, the Levy Board shall pay to that bookmaker such amount as the tribunal may specify towards expenses appearing to the tribunal to have been reasonably incurred by the bookmaker in connection with the appeal.

If any such tribunal, in dismissing any appeal by a bookmaker, or on the abandonment of any appeal after the tribunal has taken some action towards its determination, thinks it just that the bookmaker should make a payment towards expenses incurred by the tribunal in connection with the appeal, the tribunal may certify accordingly and the Levy Board shall be entitled to recover from the bookmaker as a debt due to them the amount specified in the certificate.

Subject to subsection (2) of this section, the contribution such as is mentioned in section 24(1) of this Act to be paid by the F35successor company to the Totalisator Board in respect of any levy period shall be such as may be determined before the beginning of that period by the Levy Board after consultation with the F35successor company to the Totalisator Board.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .