The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has warned that the Government's planned betting and gaming tax changes may reduce tax income and push more people towards illegal gambling sites.
The Autumn Budget's proposed gambling tax reforms, which raise remote gaming duty to 40% and remote betting duty to 25%, are likely to reduce projected tax yields by around one third. This includes an estimated £500m ($666,400) loss by 2029-30 as consumers move away from regulated operators and towards unlicensed alternatives.
The OBR notes that around 90% of the duty increase is likely to be passed on to consumers through higher costs or lower returns. It states that this could make licensed products less appealing and shift more activity to unlawful operators that provide no protections or tax contributions and carry out no safer gambling checks.
These concerns from the BGC come after the Gambling Commission released its report on illegal online gambling, which refrained from estimating the size of the black market, meaning there is no official measure of how many consumers could be pushed to unregulated sites by the proposed tax changes.
The Government continues to state that the measures will raise £1.1bn but independent analysis, including modelling by EY, indicates that this figure is unlikely to be reached.
Grainne Hurst, Betting and Gaming Council Chief Executive, stated: "These proposals also threaten shop closures, further job losses and a less competitive online market, meaning lower, not higher, long-term tax revenues.
"They also push more customers to the black market, where there are no protections, no taxes and no safeguards."
Prior to the announcement of Britain's new budget, the BGC dismissed Gordan Brown's tax levy calls on the industry as 'economically reckless and factually misleading'
