BGC chief executive warns of tax ‘hammer blow’

Betting and Gaming Council chief executive Grainne Hurst has described the decision in the Budget to raise some gambling duties as a “devastating hammer blow” to the betting and gaming industry.

The BGC is the body which regulates the UK betting and gaming industry, representing betting shops, casinos, online and bingo, and while racing was exempted from any duty rises by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, online sports betting will be taxed at a rate of 25 per cent in the future and remote gaming duty, which is paid on online casino betting, will rise from 21 to 40 per cent.

Machine betting duty, paid on land-based betting terminals such as the machines in betting shops, has not been adjusted and remains at 20 per cent.

Hurst said: “Massive tax increases for online betting and gaming announced in the Budget make them among the highest in the world, and are a devastating hammer blow to tens of thousands of people working in the industry across the UK, and millions of customers who enjoy a bet.

“Regulated betting and gaming is one of the UK’s few globally successful sectors, generating £6.8billion for the economy, contributing over £4bn in tax and supporting 109,000 jobs, while delivering vital funding for British sport.

“While we welcome the decision not to raise land-based duties and to scrap bingo duty – these excessive online tax increases will undermine jobs, investment and growth across the UK.

“The government’s Budget is a massive win for the incredibly harmful, unsafe, unregulated gambling black market, which pays no tax and offers none of the protections that exist in the regulated sector.

“These decisions are bad for jobs, bad for customers, bad for sports – and bad for safer gambling.”

Bookmakers had warned that any tax increases could impact racing in a range of ways, including reduced spending on sponsorship, less competitive odds and possible betting shop closures, and British Horseracing Authority chief executive Brant Dunshea acknowledged the potential negatives of the revised future rates.

Dunshea said: “We do, of course, recognise that as part of today’s announcements there are going to be other implications across the gambling sector. We absolutely value our relationship with betting operator partners. We want to collaborate with betting operator partners to grow the sport and I’m absolutely convinced that betting operators and racing have a shared interest in doing that and are committed to doing so.

“We will continue to work collaboratively with operators. Myself and others have been engaging regularly in recent months with the different operators in a positive way.”

Racing receives income through media rights payments and the levy from every betting shop and Dunshea said the BHA had raised the issue during discussions with the government.

He added: “It was a concern to us – obviously there’s a direct relationship with media rights revenue for racing in the event that shops closed. We have ourselves been making representations to Government in regard to that nexus between shop closures, the impact on land-based betting and our broader revenue through media rights.

“We are pleased that the government have also recognised the concerns that have been raised by the gambling sector and that we have also raised in that regard.

“The immediate priority for us is to thoroughly understand all the detail around what has been announced today and that will take some time, we will continue to work on that. We will work through that to understand what we believe the implications will be.

“In addition to the gambling-related announcements, there are a range of other potential impacts across the broader racing sector that we need to understand as well so our priority is understanding that in it’s entirety. Further to that, it is a priority to continue to engage with our betting operator partners to also further understand the impact on them.”

As part of the Budget announcement, an additional £26million of funding has been allocated to the Gambling Commission over the next three years to tackle black market betting.

Dunshea said: “During our campaign we have advocated that this is a real risk of any proposed intervention, so it’s pleasing the government have again recognised that as an issue as part of this and further resources have been dedicated to that.”