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There are another 300 million "emerging" or "aspirant" consumers, but they are reluctant spenders who've only just begun to open their purse strings, as click-of-a-button digital payments make it easy to transact.

It wants an assurance from the clubs that they have "carried out due diligence on their white label partners and that consumers in Great Britain cannot transact with the unlicensed sites," it said.

If there are enough buyers and sellers transacting, that market is efficient.

It said its banking systems were unaffected so customers could continue to "transact securely."

Mr Smith said that Horizon began to creep up the priority list when a new online version would freeze in hundreds of sites - which directly affected postmasters' ability to transact - hitting the overall business.