{"id":448428,"date":"2025-09-24T17:28:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/448428\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T17:28:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:28:13","slug":"online-betting-tax-hike-absolutely-detrimental-to-horse-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/448428\/","title":{"rendered":"Online betting tax hike ‘absolutely detrimental’ to horse racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

The Treasury is looking to bring existing online betting duties into one single rate<\/p>\n

The director of a racecourse in East Sussex has said proposed government changes to gambling taxes would be “absolutely detrimental” to horse racing. <\/p>\n

Plumpton Racecourse’s Thomas Savill criticised hiking the current 15% levy on online horse racing bets to 21% in November’s budget, thereby bringing the sport in line with internet gambling and casinos.<\/p>\n

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has said the industry, which is supported by gambling, could lose \u00a3330m over five years as a result, leading to thousands of redundancies in the first 12 months. <\/p>\n

But a spokesperson for the Treasury said no such tax increase had been announced and called speculation on the matter “irresponsible”.<\/p>\n

Mr Savill said: “Any tax increase on horse racing would be absolutely detrimental to an industry that’s really struggling at the moment.<\/p>\n

“With less investment there’ll be less owners and, as a result, less horses, thereby making the sport less competitive.” <\/p>\n

He suggested the government instead look at the “pretty much pure profit” world of online casinos as a better way of raising revenue.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Plumpton Racecourse director Thomas Savill said the industry was already struggling<\/p>\n

The BHA led a protest of leading jockeys, trainers and owners <\/a>at Westminster earlier this month in opposition to the proposals.<\/p>\n

The protest, which took place amid a one-day British horse-racing strike on 10 September, saw participants brandish the slogan “Axe The Racing Tax”.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there has also been concern that betting odds could become less desirable, resulting in fewer bets placed and winners’ prize money taking a hit.<\/p>\n

However, with all bets placed onsite to remain tax free, the change will directly affect bookmakers rather than spectators.<\/p>\n

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Dan Tomlinson, said: “The chancellor has been clear that speculation on tax rises is not only inaccurate but also irresponsible. <\/p>\n

“We have not announced an increase in the tax on horserace betting, and racecourse betting currently gets a 100% tax break, which we have no plans to change.<\/p>\n

“Horseracing is part of our cultural fabric, that’s why it’s the only sector that benefits from a government-mandated levy. <\/p>\n

“Our wider gambling consultation is only about levelling the playing field and simplifying the system, and we are working closely with the industry to understand any potential impacts.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PA Media The Treasury is looking to bring existing online betting duties into one single rate The director…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-448428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115260458595769596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}