betting tax

Bookmakers say they should handle the betting tax rebate as the money comes from their betting shops.

Then they introduced the Betting Tax.

It's the poor old punter who pays the betting tax in stoppages from winning bets - but he won't get a penny.

Betting tax is charged at 10p in the pound, so tax on a £2 bet will be 20p.

Betting tax doubled to 2%, whilst motor tax increased by between 4% and 5%.

The levy has yielded between £30m and £40m to racing, while betting tax now nets the government rather more than £300m from racing.

Among the Board's principal aims is to provide the leadership that can negotiate a further reduction in betting tax to help put racing on a firm financial footing.

To protest a new betting tax, the bookmakers at Tattersalls Park refused to bet, thus making it impossible for the track to lay odds, and effectively shutting down business there and off-track.

In the UK, punters were required to pay a 9% betting tax but, in 1996, Chandler obtained a betting licence in Gibraltar and in 1999 moved his entire business there.

Victor Chandler has offered free betting from £5, and in 2001 the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, announced that he was scrapping UK betting tax, a huge victory for punters.

The industry experienced a decline from the early 1960s- when the 1960 Betting and Gaming Act permitted off-course cash betting- although sponsorship, limited television coverage, and the later abolition of on-course betting tax have partially offset this decline.