British horse racing is planning a September 10th strike against the Labour government’s proposed betting tax rise.
All scheduled racing in Britain on the date will be cancelled, abandoning meetings at Uttoxeter, Lingfield, Kempton and Carlisle which is expected to result in a £700,000 loss to the industry.
The action has been agreed following cooperation between Jockey Club Racecourses, which operates Kempton and Carlisle, Arena Racing Company, operator of Uttoxeter and Lingfield, and the sport’s ruling body, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA).
Last month the BHA revealed if plans for tax harmonisation are put in place it could cost the sport as much as £160 million.
A YouGov survey commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) revealed nearly a third of UK gamblers could head for the black market in the event Chancellor Rachel Reeves follows through.
What Is The Betting Tax Rise?
At the moment, online gambling in the UK is taxed in two separate categories – one general betting duty that covers racing, sports and other events without a fixed profit margin for the operator set at 15% – and a remote duty that concerns games of chance like roulette set at 21% of gross profits.
The government want to equalise the duty for online gambling into a single tax called remote betting and gaming duty (RBGD).
If horse racing was levied at 21%, that would result in UK betting sites having to fork out an extra £66 million on the sport alone.
Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Labour to hike gambling taxes to prevent a ‘social crisis’ that would cover the cost of scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
Key figures in racing are adamant the changes would cause irreparable damage and threaten thousands of jobs.
Betting and gaming have been taxed separately since the Betting and Gaming Act was introduced in 1961.
As a result of tax increases, racing would become the most expensive product a bookmaker can carry. Online casinos will have to make prices less competitive in order maintain their profit margins.
Therefore, traffic to offshore sportsbooks could be on the rise in the near future.
Joe Lyons is a betting industry writer for GamblingIndustryNews with years of experience on reputable gambling websites. Joe specialises in long form content in the world of sports betting and gambling. Joe is recognised as an expert in sports fields such as horse racing, soccer, NFL and NBA.
