Gambling on horse racing, hallowed British pastime and mainstay of iconic High Street betting shops, is under threat from proposed massive tax hikes on the sport of kings and commoners alike.
And in an unprecedented move, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and racecourses across the country are now planning to strike on September 10 for the first time in living memory.
The BHA and the wider UK horse racing industry, which employs around 110,000 people, argue that they already contribute at least £4.1 billion (US$5.55bn) worth of value to the British economy, of which just over £1 billion (US$1.35bn) is generated by core racing.
And they claim they are now facing an existential crisis because of the mooted tax rises on betting.
Currently horse racing is subject to three types of basic betting tax.
These are iGaming’s Remote Gaming Duty of 21 percent, levied on British punters, no matter which site, national or international, they have gambled on; General Betting Duty and Pool Betting Duty, both of 15 percent each.
With Britain facing a massive budgetary black hole of at least £50 billion (US$67.69bn), Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out betting tax hikes in her upcoming Autumn Budget.
Most industry watchers expect the Labour government to unify and impose an across-the-board levy of 21 percent on horse racing gambling.
“If these taxes are pushed through it will cause catastrophic damage to the overall racing industry, not just the betting industry,” a high-level source in the BHA, who asked for anonymity, told this reporter today.
Controversy
UK horse racing is now being rent by the taxation controversy and, increasingly, from some perspectives by its unwelcome association with the “seamier” aspects of the gambling industry.
Betting on horse racing is often presented as the acceptable face of the gambling industry.
There can be few among us who have not had a “flutter” on the horses in the High Street bookies, experiencing the thrill of betting on the Grand National, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and a cluster of other iconic horse races.
An integral feature of horse racing’s pull is the competition between rival champion runners.
But uncertainty, engendered by the volatile tax future and its compound effect on the overall health of the industry, has only accelerated the sale of top horses to foreign fields, Hong Kong and Dubai, among them.
It has also worsened relations between the traditional horse racing industry and the bookmakers, which are often fractious at best.
As recently reported in these pages, former Labour Party leader and UK prime minister Gordon Brown has called for significant increases in gambling levies to help alleviate child poverty.
Westminster Protest
This would also include raising taxes on equine betting.
Brown, the left-wing Social Market Foundation think-tank and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling Reform are all in favour of raising gambling taxes across-the-board to some 50 percent, which would increase the gambling tax yield by an estimated £3.2 billion (US$4.33bn).
Jim Mullen, Chief Executive of The Jockey Club, which owns Kempton and Carlisle race courses, says tax rises would cause “irreparable damage” to the nation’s second most popular spectator sport, after football.
“By cancelling racing fixtures, we hope the government will take a moment to reflect on the harm this tax [increase] will cause,” Mullen has told the media.
The proposed September 10 horse racing strike will target fixtures at Carlisle, Kempton Park, Lingfield Park and Uttoxeter.
A protest–by racehorse owners, trainers, jockeys, and no doubt a number of race horses–will be held simultaneously on Westminster Green outside the Houses of Parliament as part of the industry’s ongoing ‘AxeTheRacingTax’ campaign.
