Talking Horses: Justice For Punters gets timely reboot before Cheltenham

The biggest week of the year for betting turnover on racing is almost upon us and here come the ads full of pumped-up punters, projecting the image of gambling that the bookies want you to see: bonuses, free bets, a giddy four-day ride of fun and frolics in the west country with a rousing chorus of Sweet Caroline to round it all off. And for thousands of their customers in Cheltenham week at least, the reality may not be too far off the mark.

If, however, you turn out to be one of those whose experience of betting with the UK’s regulated gambling industry is altogether different, here is a website you might be glad you bookmarked.

For the last six years, a small group of volunteers at Justice For Punters has been offering free advice to punters in dispute with gambling firms, steadily building on their experience from hundreds of individual cases and, in the process, extracting £2.6m from operators that they had initially refused to pay out. On Monday, its site and operation relaunched in a new guise, and while it no longer accepts individual inquiries, its aim is that in future, it will do all it can to ensure that punters can help themselves.

J4P was founded by Brian Chappell, who worked tirelessly on issues around fair and transparent treatment for punters alongside another veteran campaigner, Paul Fairhead, until the latter’s sudden death 18 months ago. Both had wide experience of life at the sharp end of gambling, and in particular, of how individual companies can use vague and unfair Terms & Conditions – which customers agree to on sign-up via a tick-box – to avoid paying out on bets, confiscate balances and other dubious practices.

Chappell decided in November that the workload involved with J4P was becoming