Tories: Labour desperate to use bookies tax to bail out Rachel Reeves
Shadow sport and gambling minister Louie French has ripped into the Government over its plans for gambling taxes so soon after a sector white paper, describing them as a threat to bookies and horseracing.
The Conservative MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup said Labour were “desperate” to find “easy tax rises to bail out Rachel Reeves”.
The damning comments come after the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Racing and Bloodstock likened Government plans for online gambling duties to former Chancellor George Osborne’s inevitable “pasty tax” U-turn.
They also follow a Treasury-led consultation on the recent Gambling White Paper, which focused on the treatment of remote betting.
The APPG’s co-chair Nick Timothy said the Government plans amounted to a “mad proposal”.
French concurred, stating: “Hiking gambling taxes threatens to tank small bookies, horseracing and bingo halls, a huge blow to many high streets and racing towns.”
The Treasury plans to change the structure of online gambling duties with a system that would tax bets on horse racing at an equivalent rate to online casinos.
There are industry fears that costs could therefore rise for bookies who operate online, and force punters towards a betting black market.
“It would be a death knell on top of affordability checks,” French added, “which are already fuelling the black market, which is a lose-lose for a Government desperate for cash and worried about problem gambling.”
Tax rises for bookies?
City AM understands that DCMS officials are conscious of the concerns within the horse racing community about another issue, affordability checks, that rely on onerous paperwork, with the Gambling Commission currently piloting a replacement for these checks.
A government spokesperson said: “We recognise the huge importance of horse racing to the British sporting calendar and the significant contribution it makes to the economy every year.
“We have recently launched a consultation on the tax treatment of remote gambling and are actively engaging with the sector, so are grateful to the APPG for their contributions and will consider the report fully.”
Fellow All-Party Parliamentary Group for Racing and Bloodstock co-chair, Labour MP Dan Carden, said that he wants his “government to do the right thing and back British racing for the future and make it as successful as it possibly can be”.
BGC chief executive Grainne Hurst said: “Any tax rises now, so soon after a white paper which cost the sector over a billion in lost revenue, will only prevent growth.”
Adjacently, last month plans were shelved to liberalise rules on slot machines due to worries about vulnerable customers.
It was a setback for the adult gaming centre industry, which has been fast-growing in recent years.