Brown Revives Old Gambling Tax Campaign to Destroy Racing and Bingo – Guido Fawkes

Brown Revives Old Gambling Tax Campaign to Destroy Racing and Bingo

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Gordon Brown’s call for a raft of gambling tax hikes today is a rerun of his long-running attempt to kill the industry. This latest wheeze from the ex-PM is no different…

The tax hike calls come this time from Labour’s house think tank the IPPR which proposes hiking duties:

• On online casinos from 21% to 50%.
• On slots and gaming machines from 20% to 50%.
• Hiking general betting duty on non-racing bets from 15% to 25%.

The proposals strangely enough echo those proposed by Brown and his wonks at the Social Market Foundation. Its head ex-Brown spinner Theo Bertram is running defence of the IPPR report on X today…

There is no groundswell of support for gambling taxation – it is a co-ordinated campaign from Brown and his cronies. Aveek Bhattachayra, formerly the SMF’s economist, transferred to the Treasury in March this year as Head of Excise. Coincidentally the Treasury has now run and finished a “consultation” on remote gambling which signals the government’s aims to raise a raft of gambling duties. Goodbye racing and online bingo…