Former PM Gordon Brown calls for gambling tax hike in the UK
Brown says a rise in gambling tax would help lift half a million children out of poverty.
UK.- A political heavyweight has taken sides in the fierce debate on gambling tax in the UK. Amid the current labour government’s consultation on plans to create a unified Remote Betting and Gaming Duty, the former prime minister and chancellor Gordon Brown has argued that gambling taxes should be raised across the board.
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 former PM cited a report from the think-tank IPPR that estimates that gambling tax reforms could raise £3.2bn. It proposes increasing remote gaming duty for online casinos from 21 to 50 per cent, slot machines games duty from 20 to 50 per cent and general betting duty on non-racing bets from 15 to 25 per cent.
“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.”
So far, the current Labour prime minister Keir Starmer has opted to keep the cap on child benefit, but many backbench MPs are opposed to the rule, which was introduced by the previous Conservative government. Brown, who led the UK between 2007 and 2010 and was chancellor for a decade during Tony Blair’s premiership, described the restriction as a “national scandal” that had pushed 4.5m children into poverty.
His proposals to increase gambling tax has also been supported by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. However, the Labour party is divided over gambling tax. Richard Baker, the MP for Glenrothes and Mid Fife in Scotland, recently defended the gaming industry, arguing that any tax changes need to balance the needs for short-term revenue with the potential impact on jobs, future tax income, and the funding provided for sport.
In his column, Brown mentioned the example of gambling tax in the Netherlands, which was hiked from 30.5 per cent to 34.2 per cent this year and us due to rise further to 37.8 per cent in 202635 per cent. However, the Dutch gambling regulator KSA has today published a report that suggests the tax hike has been counterproductive, leading to a decline in revenue.
