ATG CEO blasts “illogical” hike in Swedish gambling tax
Hasse Lord Skarplöth says the increased tax rate will impact the country’s horsing racing sector.
Sweden.- Hasse Lord Skarplöth, the CEO of Sweden’s horse racing betting operator, AB Trav och Galopp (ATG), has attacked the government’s decision to increase gambling tax. Commenting on Q2 results, he described the hike as a “horse tax”, claiming that it will have a disproportionate impact on ATG’s operations and would negatively affect horse racing as a result.
Swedish gambling tax was increased from 18 to 22 per cent of gross gambling revenue from July 1 in a bid to generate an extra SEK500m in annual tax revenue for the government. However, Skarplöth anticipates that around SEK200m of that will come from ATG.
He said: “Based on ATG’s mission from the state – to ensure long-term development for the sport of trotting and galloping in Sweden – the tax increase is, to put it mildly, illogical”.
He added: “The horse tax will lead to an increase in costs for ATG. This in turn affects the funds for our owners and the entire Swedish horse industry and leads to the erosion of ATG’s mission.”
ATG had argued that instead of increasing the tax rate on all gross gambling revenue to 22 per cent, the government should have introduced a differentiated tax rate for online casino gaming. It suggested increasing the tax on online casino gaming to 26 per cent and leaving the 18 per cent rate for betting. Skarplöth has said that he will continue to lobby for this change.
“The proposal would not only mean a lower tax burden for a sport currently struggling against increased costs and high interest rates, but it would also add more money to the treasury than the government’s own proposal, and that we too would have better public health as online casino is the form of gambling that is most associated with gambling problems.”
ATG results
As for its results for the second quarter, ATG reported that revenue was up 2.6 per cent year-on-year at SEK1.57bn (€138m). Net gaming revenue came in at SEK1.39bn, up 3.3 per cent, but horse racing betting revenue was down 1 per cent at SEK996m owning to the annual SpringRace coming earlier this year.
Sports betting net gaming revenue was up 15.6 per cent to SEK207m thanks to the start of Euro 2024 while online casino revenue rose by 16.6 per cent to SEK183m. After a modest reduction in expenses, ATG saw net profit rise 4.7 per cent year-on-year to SEK448m. Net profit for the first half as a whole reached a record SEK833m, rising 13.2 per cent year-on-year.
