Amid tumbling polling figures, a group of over 101 socialist MPs attending today’s Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, have called for swingeing tax hikes on iGaming and the wider gambling industry.
The MPs, who form some 25 percent of the parliamentary party, would like to see most betting taxes more than doubled and used to tackle child poverty.
Under their plans Remote Gambling Duty would rise from 21 percent to 50 percent.
The tax on slot machine wins would also increase to 50 percent, from the current 20 percent.
And General Betting Duty on all forms of sports wagering, both iGaming and retail, would double from 15 to 30 percent – with the exception of horse racing.
Child Poverty
With the ruling British Labour Party–despite enjoying a massive parliamentary majority, after winning 401 seats in last year’s elections–facing allegations of fiscal incompetence, poor leadership and a profound loss of identity, the child poverty campaign has been supercharged by a recent report by the left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank calling for under-fire UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves to scrap the so-called two-child benefit cap.
The IPPR report has been championed by former Labour Party leader Gordon Brown and the anti-gambling All Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling Reform (APPGGR).
“There is a compelling case for a targeted levy on harmful online gambling products,” the APPGGR argues.
And the IPPR estimates that its proposed gambling tax hikes would increase next year’s tax yield by around £3.2 billion (US$4.3bn) and lift some 500,000 children out of poverty.
Clandestine Market
But the gambling industry’s representative Betting and Gaming Council (BCG) say such a move would only drive even more gamblers to play on the nation’s dark web and illegal gaming sites.
“We strongly oppose proposals to raise taxes on the regulated betting and gaming industry. Such a move would be short-sighted, harming jobs, investment and sports funding, while failing to deliver more revenue,” a BCG spokesperson told iGF.
And they have cited recent tax hikes in the Dutch gambling industry as proof that higher levies only benefit the growth of the unregulated clandestine betting market.
After increasing iGaming taxes from 30.5 to 34.2 percent at the start of this year, Holland is now expecting a fall of €40 million (£34.91m) in 2025 GGR – instead of a much-touted increase of €100 million (£87.29m).
