A well-known bookmaker has lost his High Court challenge to changes in rules which he claimed affected his rights to a lucrative position for taking bets at racecourses.

Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy dismissed an application by Brian Graham for a judicial review of a change in rules over how bookmakers were allocated pitches in premium areas of racecourses.

Mr Graham, a member of the Sean Graham bookmaker family business, had sought to quash a decision made in December 2016 by the Pitch Tribunal. The tribunal is an ad hoc body established by the Irish National Professional Bookmakers Association and the Association of Irish Racecourses to adjudicate on disputes over pitches.

Appeal

The tribunal had dismissed an appeal by Mr Graham over the introduction of the new rules which allowed for allocations in premium areas of racecourses to be linked to seniority but also to be rotated among those eligible.

The judge said tribunal decisions were not open to judicial review as they were made in a private law setting which had no statutory dimension or role.

Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), the statutory body that oversees racing in Ireland, claimed it was inappropriately joined as a respondent in the case as its sole role was to implement the “pitch rules”.

HRI argued Mr Graham had no standing to bring the challenge as it was his mother, Brenda Graham, who was the holder of an on-course permit.

The judge said Mr Graham had adopted several strategies to try and apply a “public law veneer” to the dispute including “overstating the role of HRI in the process”.

She found Horse Racing Ireland’s betting division had merely implemented the change in rules determined by the Irish National Professional Bookmakers Association and Association of Irish Racecourses.

The judge said Mr Graham knew well that it was untrue for him to state that the tribunal chairman was nominated by HRI as he was the Irish National Professional Bookmakers Association chairman in 2011 when the rule was changed that the position would be nominated jointly by that organisation and the Association of Irish Racecourses.

The High Court said it had no evidence to explain Mr Graham’s change of heart between February 2016 when he approved the new rules at a meeting and the following month when he objected to the allocation of pitches under the changes.

Permit

Mr Graham had claimed the change represented “a deliberate attempt to destroy any remaining value” in his seniority.

The judge said Mr Graham had stated wrongly that he was the holder of an on-course betting permit which she concluded was a deliberate attempt to mislead the court and to convey the impression that his issues were in “the public law realm”.

The judge said Mr Graham had repeatedly been advised that his real dispute was between him and his own association, the Irish National Professional Bookmakers Association.

She said Horse Racing Ireland had no function to go behind notifications it received from the Irish National Professional Bookmakers Association or the Association of Irish Racecourses in relation to pitch rules.

Dismissing Mr Graham’s case, the judge said it was clear from various minutes of Irish National Professional Bookmakers Association meetings that there is dissatisfaction in some quarters of the association with the operation of the new pitch rules, notwithstanding their approval in February 2016.

“That is an issue to be resolved within its own internal rules,” she added.