MP triggers concerns
Shares in UK-listed sportsbooks have plummeted after Finance Minister Rachel Reeves told ITV News there was a case for gambling firms to pay more taxes.
pay their fair share”
Triggering investor anxiety across the industry, Reeves essentially warned that gambling taxes will be hiked in the budget she delivers on November 26. The Chancellor of the Exchequer stated her government will make sure gambling firms “pay their fair share of taxes.”
By Tuesday, the industry had reacted, with William Hill parent company Evoke registering the sharpest trading drop of 1.5% as of early morning.
Stocks in BetMGM co-owner Entain fell 1.08%, while those in FanDuel’s holding firm Flutter Entertainment declined 0.5%.
Bracing for it
Reeves comments to an ITV reporter after the Labour conference in Liverpool suggest the tax hikes are a formality in the Autumn Budget.
No other chancellor has done that.”
The Chancellor took ownership of initiating the gambling tax review, saying: “I’m the chancellor who set up the review of gambling taxes. No other chancellor has done that.”
Reeves then added that these efforts stem from her belief that there are grounds for gambling firms to be “paying more.”
The UK’s potential tax increase has held the gambling industry in flux for the past month, with actions like cancelled horse races on one side and pressure from MPs on the other fighting against or pushing for the November hike.
Last week, over 100 MPs from PM Keir Starmer’s Labour Party called for higher taxes on the likes of Entain and Flutter in a letter to the Chancellor, claiming the UK tax rate was lower than in other countries, and justified the hike.
Earlier in the month it was the turn of the British Horseracing Authority’s “Axe the Racing Tax” campaign to fight the opposing corner. The BHA’s campaign included a voluntary September 10 racing day shutdown to protest against potential tax hikes it said could wipe £66m ($88m) from the horse racing industry in its first year.
Support amid growing opposition
The group of MP campaigners led by former PM Gordon Brown aren’t just calling for tax hikes, they’re also demanding major increases to gaming duties for both brick-and-mortar and online gambling operators, a move sportsbooks claim could signal the end of UK betting shops.
Brown and company, and many other pro-hikers, cite a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) calling for major gambling tax hikes, and claim the revenue could be used “to lift children out of poverty.”
a very complex issue”
The Minister for Gambling Baroness Twycroft, however, warned that gambling tax and child poverty should be tackled separately. “I’m not convinced we should be putting them in the same pot where you get a very easy answer to what is actually a very complex issue.”
