Online bookies face UK sports levy
Labour Party says it will look to extend horse racing levy to all sports should it win back power in 2015
Online bookmakers taking bets on UK sports events face a further squeeze on margins after the country’s opposition Labour Party said it was considering plans to extend the horse racing betting levy to all sports.
The ‘betting right’, an idea also floated by the ruling Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition earlier this year, would tax the profits bookies make from UK sporting events with proceeds channelled into supporting grassroots sports and problem gambling.
Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman is to unveil the plans in a speech today as part of a wider consultation into how a Labour government would encourage more children to take part in sport.
And Labour shadow sports minister Clive Efford said his party believed operators had a “moral obligation” to contribute to sports from which they make money.
“We are consulting on whether we should introduce a levy on betting, including online betting, to fund gambling awareness and support for problem gambling but also to improve community sports facilities and clubs,” Efford said.
“Football gambling online and in betting shops is now far larger than horseracing gambling and yet it does nothing to help the sport itself.”
“I think they have a moral obligation to help the industry from which they make billions, and the results could be dramatic,” he added.
Precise details of how the levy would work in practice are as yet unknown, however, it is expected the tax would only affect those licensed to take bets from UK customers.
If implemented, the betting right would come as a further blow to online operators after the government this month announced plans to extend the current high-street horse racing levy, which this year will raise £82m, to remote operators from 2015.
Moreover, from 1 December all profits made from customers residing in the UK will be hit with a 15% tax “ a measure which was rubber-stamped following the passing of the Finance Bill into law last week.
Ladbrokes director of external communications Donal McCabe blasted Labour’s plans and said the betting industry was being seen as a “bottomless pit” by politicians looking for additional tax revenues.
“With two new tax hits due in the next six months through PoC and a rise in machine gaming duty it would seem that politicians think there is a bottomless pit to raid,” McCabe said.
“No such extra levy would come free, it would hit jobs and reinvestment opportunities that would hit the very local communities they are trying to help.
“The answer to more sport being played in the UK is not a betting levy and the education around responsible gambling is something the industry is already spending substantial money on through its support of the Responsible Gambling Trust,” he added.