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The UK government looks ready to bump up gambling taxes as part of a bigger push to reduce child poverty. Several think tanks, including the Social Market Foundation and the Institute for Public Policy Research, have floated the idea: raise gambling levies to fund scrapping the two-child benefit cap. That change alone comes with a £3 billion price tag.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer suggested the move could feature in the Autumn Budget later this month, telling ITV:
“We won’t have to wait much longer, but I wouldn’t be telling you that we’re going to drive down child poverty if I wasn’t clear that we will be taking a number of measures in order to do so.”
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown also expressed support, highlighting the contrast between gambling taxes and other sin taxes:
“We tax cigarettes at 80 per cent, we tax alcohol at 70 per cent, but the online gambling tax is 21 per cent. So there’s a big case for change… move the money from, if you like, the bad, by taxing it, and put it to good, which is children taken out of poverty.”
The proposed changes, backed by more than 100 Labour MPs and the Liberal Democrat Party, would increase remote gaming duty for online casinos from 21% to 50%, slot machine duty from 20% to 50%, and general betting duty on non-racing bets from 15% to 25%. According to the IPPR, this could generate an estimated £3.2bn, sufficient to cover the cost of lifting the child benefit cap.
Not everyone’s on board. The Betting and Gaming Council warns that a sharp tax rise could send players running to unlicensed sites. They point to the Netherlands, where higher taxes apparently led to a drop in regulated tax revenues.
With the Autumn Budget just around the corner, the government has a tough job: find more money to help struggling families, but don’t push the gambling industry underground. There’s a lot riding on how they strike that balance.
Source: Focus GN
