Entrepreneur John Caudwell backs calls for UK gambling tax hike
the Phones 4u is supporting Gordon Brown’s proposal to tax the industry harder.
UK.- John Caudwell, the billionaire founder of the long bankrupt mobile phone seller Phones 4u, has added his support to calls for a rise in UK gambling tax. Caudwell, who is a supporter of UK prime minister Keir Starmer, welcomed the gaming tax call made by former PM Gordon Brown earlier in the month.
As the Labour government prepares its Autumn Statement, Brown has written an open letter to chancellor Rachel Reeves, urging her to adopt recommendations from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), which include raising the remote gambling duty from 21 to 50 per cent, increasing machine gaming duty to 50 per cent, and lifting general betting duty on sports wagers from 15 to 25 per cent, while exempting horseracing. The think-tank that estimates that such a move could raise £3.2bn in additional revenue.
Writing a column in The Guardian newspaper, Brown said the funds raised by a hike in gambling tax rates could be used to pay for the removal of the current two-child cap on child benefits. He says this would help take half a million children out of poverty.
“The government can fulfil today’s unmet needs by taxing an undertaxed sector,” Brown wrote. “Gambling won’t build our country for the next generation, but children, freed from poverty, will.”
Posting on X, Caudwell endorsed the proposals, arguing that the gambling industry should be taxed more heavily because it was “hugely damaging”.
Caudwell’s decision to switch his support from the Conservatives to Labour ahead of the 2024 General Election was seen as a symbolic endorsement for Starmer.
Industry stakeholders have pushed back against the calls for the tax rise while also opposing an existing government proposal to create a new unified Remote Betting and Gaming Duty. The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) recently published a survey to highlight the importance of horseracing betting in British culture but it criticised the horseracing strike called for September 10.
Both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party are split over gambling tax proposals. A Racing Post survey of 23 Labour MPs in areas with racecourses or training centres found only six willing to comment. Some were supportive of modest increases in tax while others remained non-committal. Among the Tories, some key figures have come out in opposition, but former party leader Iain Duncan Smith, is a long-time proponent of gambling reforms.
The UK budget announcement is expected in October. While Reeves held of from raising gambling taxes in the government’s first year, several European countries have recently turned to the gambling sector in a bid to raise more tax revenue, including France, Holland and Sweden. However, in Holland, the Dutch gambling regulator KSA has published a report that suggests the tax hike has been counterproductive, leading to a decline in revenue.
