Online betting companies voice opposition to UK horse racing betting levy

The logic behind the new tax—applied to 10 percent of companies’ annual profits above half a million pounds (USD 646,837)—is “to correct the current unfairness in the levy system whereby betting operators in Britain are required to pay the levy, but those based offshore in otherwise identical circumstances are not,” U.K. Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Tracey Crouchok said.

“As a rule, we don’t believe that the government should be providing gambling industry-funded state subsidies for any sport,” Hawkswood, the chief executive of The Remote Gambling Association (RGA), told Bloomberg BNA.

Robin Mounsey, a spokesman for the British Horse Racing Association (BHA) which lobbied for the changes, told Bloomberg BNA that the levies used to fund prize money, equine welfare and veterinary science had halved from over 100 million pounds annually in the last decade to less than 50 million pounds.

Of the 11 billion pounds wagered each year on horseracing, more than half is online, with the majority of online businesses based offshore, he said. The new levy, effective from April 25, could raise between 10 million pounds and 30 million pounds, according to March 27 parliamentary debate on the Horserace Betting Levy Regulations 2017.