Le società di gioco d’azzardo del Regno Unito guadagnano 1 miliardo di sterline in più dagli scommettitori in mezzo alle richieste di aumenti delle tasse | Gioco d’azzardo
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/25/uk-gambling-firms-tax-rises-winnings-online-casino-players
di OneNormalBloke
7 commenti
The UK gambling sector made an extra £1bn from punters in the year to March, according to new data expected to buoy calls for the chancellor to raise betting taxes in Wednesday’s budget.
Betting companies made £12.6bn from services excluding lotteries in latest 12-month reporting period, the Gambling Commission revealed on Tuesday, marking a 9.3% rise on the £11.5bn the industry made during the previous year.
The numbers were inflated by an almost 15% increase in gross gambling yield from online casino players, which rose to £5bn from £4.4bn during the prior period, and is now 55% higher than at the start of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.
Online casino games have been criticised for being one of the most addictive forms of gambling available in the UK, leading to calls for a rise in online gaming duty by campaigners including the former prime minister Gordon Brown.
The release of the data comes after the gambling industry has been actively lobbying the Treasury in an apparent effort to persuade Rachael Reeves to shy away from announcing large rises in a range of betting duties during her set-piece speech to the Commons on Wednesday.
The industry has the backing of some powerful supporters, with the Sun running a campaign called “Save Our Bets”. Last week the tabloid reported that Joanne Whittaker, the boss of the bookmaking chain BetFred, is arguing that even a modest increase to machine games duty – levied on machines located in premises that give cash prizes such as slot and quiz machines – will have a “devastating impact” and “significantly” cut the industry’s tax contribution, rather than contribute more revenue to the Treasury.
Whittaker’s latest intervention follows similar messaging from Betfred last month, when the company said it would close all 1,287 of its high street betting shops if Reeves raised taxes on the gambling industry. Earlier that month the company behind William Hill also said it was considering closing up to 200 betting shops if the chancellor raised taxes.
Elsewhere in the data, adult gaming centres (AGCs) reported that their winnings rose by 10% during the 12 months to March, with the industry making £682.9m from its customers, up from £623.3m.
Better yet, the government could stop letting the gambling industry design it’s own health warnings and treat them like the tobacco industry.
Require all their branding to carry off putting warnings about losing money, ending up trapped in debt, relationship breakdown and other known consequences of gambling.
If any industry deserves to be taxed out of existence, it’s the gambling industry. All they do is profit off addiction. It’s almost absurd to even call it an “industry”, they don’t make anything of value.
It’s absolutely bonkers that The Sun are allowed to launch a campaign in their “newspaper” advocating a one-sided, biased view of gambling taxation despite the fact that they themselves have a vested interest in gambling; SunBingo.
As much as I generally think that adults should largely be left alone to enjoy their vices, the gambling industry requires much heavier regulation. A complete ban on Advertising similar to the Tobacco industry is long overdue, including sponsorships.
This is one industry I would have no problem with being taxed at extortionate rates. Their profit levels are insane, just look at the amount bet365 owner pays herself every year (sure it was in the realm of 700m for a few years running).
Also these raffle/social media draws should be taxed in the same vein and require similar licensing as they cause as much of a problem, probably more so with the poorer areas.
They would raise taxes on gambling, you should see how much lobbying of Labour and the Tories the gambling sector has done over the last decade. Hundreds of millions spent