Here's a surprise - a well thought out gambling tax report

What's the current rate of betting duty on horse and dog racing, rugger, cricket ?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/06/gambling-industry-profitable-tax-fight-child-poverty

This part is mainly about child poverty so feel free to skip to the next part.

The gambling industry is a licence to print money. Tax it properly – and turbocharge the fight against child poverty

From 1945 to 1951, a Labour government, struggling to pay down Britain’s war debts in what became known as the “age of austerity”, created Britain’s welfare state, pioneered a free National Health Service and implemented family allowances. In the 1970s, facing an oil shock and rising deficits, Labour introduced child benefit for 7 million families. By 2010, despite a global financial crisis, the government had raised tax credits from zero in 1997 to £30bn, taking millions of pensioners and children out of poverty.

It is to the credit of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves that within days of entering office, they set up the child poverty review with a remit to ensure an “enduring reduction in child poverty in this parliament”. Now, for a fraction of that £30bn spent in 2010, they can resume Labour’s historic role and ultimately take 500,000 children out of poverty without dropping manifesto commitments.

As a former chancellor who understands why it matters to balance the books, I sympathise with Reeves’s fiscal inheritance. This autumn, as growth is hit by tariffs and trade restrictions, and the fiscal position weakens as we come to terms with defence requirements, a history of low productivity and steep interest payments, the window for long-promised social improvements might appear to be closing. But having been invited to respond to the government’s consultations on both child poverty and gambling taxation – and following recent reports from the Social Market Foundation and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) – it’s clear that we can identify sources of revenues to fight the war against child poverty. The first step is raising billions by taxing the extraordinarily profitable gambling and betting industry, without affecting lotteries or bingo.

There is an urgent need to act. I have not seen such deep poverty since I grew up in a mining and textiles town where unemployment was starting to bite hard. Now, each night, 1 million children in the UK try to sleep without a bed of their own. Two million households live without cookers, fridges or washing machines, and many are without toothpaste, soap or shampoo. It is heartbreaking that 3 million children go without meals because their families run out of food. The decisions of previous Tory governments have pushed 4.5 million children into poverty. This is a national scandal and a stain on our country’s soul. Britain is now enduring the worst levels of child poverty since modern records began, even worse than in the Thatcher-Major years, and far worse than in most European countries. Yet without action to improve family incomes, the numbers will, on the government’s own definition of poverty, rise to a wholly unacceptable 4.8 million children by 2029.

These are austerity’s children, the victims of 14 years of Tory rule, an era whose most vindictive act was to treat newborn third and fourth children as second-class citizens, depriving them of all the income support available to their first and second siblings. By next year, every other child in cities such as Manchester and Birmingham will be condemned to poverty. In 2010, the Trussell Trust ran 35 food banks in the UK. Now, along with independent ones, there are 2,800. Since the election, the number of homeless children in temporary accommodation in England has risen by 17,510 to 169,050.

This summer, Dickensian levels of poverty have been reported by the children’s commissioner. If we look into the eyes of these young Britons, we won’t like what we see: instead of a generation filled with optimism about the future, we’ll see among too many a deep, impenetrable sadness reflecting a loss of hope. Yet without action the government will have little chance of meeting its well-publicised target that 75% of children will be ready for school at age five.

The child poverty review, when it is published, will deserve credit for proposing more breakfast clubs, free school lunches, family hubs and additional childcare. Moving thousands into better-paid jobs will also help. Sadly, however, none of these measures will prevent child poverty continuing to rise. School lunches are worth £12 a week per child, and breakfast clubs £9 a week, but under the two-child benefit cap families have lost £66 a week for their third child. If they have a fourth child, the total is £132 a week.

The Conservative party cultivated the myth that poverty is the fault of work-shy parents and a culture of dependency. Yet 70% of children in poverty live in families where someone is working but on pay too low to make ends meet. Many of the rest are single parents unable to work because they cannot afford childcare or are coping with illness in the family. Abolishing the two-child rule – what the children’s commissioner says has to be “the foundation for all else” – would cost £2bn in 2025-26 and £2.8bn by the end of the parliament. As the Resolution Foundation has shown, almost 500,000 children can be lifted out of poverty by 2029-30 at a total cost of £3.5bn.

Inaction will cost more. Currently, local authorities and the NHS are picking up huge bills for ill health, homelessness and the cost of supporting children in care. For every 100,000 children, each 1% increase in child poverty forces an additional five of them into care. Each child looked after by the care system costs an estimated £1.2m in terms of lost productivity and their use of public services.

Why have you copied the virtue signalling bull sh1t, and bolded it

Do you think that Brown realises that hiking tax on an optional activity reduces the revenue from it?

To be honest, he ought to by now. He was the chancellor that left the country potless after all.

Yes betting consumers are not directly taxed so it will be a squeeze on margins, sponsorships etc. It will ultimately kill of the activity.

Brown is a lot of things but he isn't an idiot. Obviously he knows that hiking taxes on betting profits will ultimately reduce the total revenue collected.

As with all socialists, and the bit bolded by ram, it's all about appearance for them and not outcomes. Hence chasing all the rich people out of the country.

There'll be no tears for bookies but Labour's hikes on the tax on jobs and minimum wage will already have squeezed the profitability of betting offices. People may argue it is antiquated anyway, and they are on their way out, but a hiking of tax on betting profits will expedite shop closures. It's also arguable that they are a blight on the 'high street', but probably better than boarded up buildings full of squatters.

.... and why are they desperate to leave France ? 

to the best of my knowledge there are no wars currently taking place within France.  perfectly safe.

Apart from creating employment for a few most betting shops these days are custodians of fobt - 'ronnie' is an exception.

The majority of managers and staff in betting shops are clueless including the one in Morden opposite the Tube station; one manager tried to cheat a friend on a rule 4 post a new market had been formed; do not understand odds; could not even settle an easy double eg 1/1 and 7/4.

Betting shops in the high street are nothing but convenient casinos; betting shops do not produce anything eg no tangible useful product for use or consumption - merely facility a sick and damaging habit/addiction ie a fantasy get rich quick reward. I'd rather have a casino on the high street than a rather seedy betting shop with dodgy looking fobt players.

Just double the  present taxation rate. Ignore the whining of the bookies; bookies are whingers and utter liars; their profits tell a different story.

Cider -- the bolded bit is the newspaper headline from the Guardian.

Cider -- yes, I manually bolded it in order to show it was the newspaper headline, as is my custom when pasting articles (along with removing photo credits referring to pictures that have not been uploaded).

" He was the chancellor that left the country potless after all. "

A targeted tax hike on a damaging and addictive gambling product eg fobt can only be applauded. This product is a non-necessity and an embarrassment to horseracing and other sports.

I fully concur with the former PM and Chancellor Mr Brown. I think he sussed out the mentality and disingenuity of the bookies totally.

Hiking the tax might not reduce the damage (totally) however, it certainly will increase tax revenues. I think bookies should be asked to fund the entities used by problem gamblers and fobt addicts eg social services, nhs, judiciary, etc.

Fobt is the scourge of society and horseracing punters. Fobt is a non-necessity gambling product conveniently but wrongly attached to the horseracing wagon by paid scums, and unscrupulous gravy-trainers of horseracing.

dont try and reason with unbearable-hes a g1 fruit and major-league bore

toldya the 25 intake was a bit rum

hes picked things up quickly though

sorry never noticed this thread Gordon brown