A PROPOSED tax raid on gambling firms would obliterate jobs and damage beloved British sports, an industry chief warned yesterday.
Grainne Hurst, CEO of the Betting and Gaming Council, implored Chancellor Rachel Reeves to reject a “headline-grabbing plan” by ex-PM Gordon Brown to hike levies gambling.
She blasted: “In 2001, Gordon Brown binned the outdated betting tax.
“The result? Companies came back, thousands of jobs were created, the Treasury took more, and the industry went global.
“Now, he’s abandoned that common sense in favour of a headline-grabbing plan that would do the exact opposite – costing jobs, damaging sport and driving customers to the unsafe, unregulated black market.”
Mr Brown called for a £3 billion tax raid on the sector to pay for measures to tackle child poverty, despite the Government spending £313 billion on welfare a year.
He based his calls on a paper by the centre left wonk tank the IPPR, which wants betting duty to go from 15 per cent to 25 per cent on sports and 21 per cent to 50 per cent on online bingo, poker and slots.
Ms Hurst cautioned the move would hammer Britain’s betting and gaming sector, which already pays £4bn in taxes, generates £6.8bn for the economy and bankrolls sports including horse racing, rugby league, darts and snooker.
The industry also funds a £100m-a-year programme for research, prevention and treatment of problem gambling.
ReutersChancellor Rachel Reeves has been asked to reject a ‘headline-grabbing plan’ to hike levies gambling[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
