Copyright dailystar
Pubs, fashion stores, beauty salons, taxi firms and hotels will shut if Rachel Reeves ramps up horse racing taxes, experts have warned. The effects of the Chancellor’s planned levy hike on the Sport of Kings will extend far from the racecourse - and hit almost every aspect of ‘working class’ fun, industry chiefs fear. Not only will raising betting taxes hit owners, trainers, jockeys, stablehands, racecourses and bookies. But every linked industry - from beauticians spray-tanning Ladies’ Day race-goers to cabbies ferrying revellers to the course - will also take a hammering, according to the British Horseracing Authority. In a direct plea the body - which organised a national racing strike against the plans - has written to the Chancellor saying: “We are deeply concerned about the broader implications of these proposals. “This is not just about Britain’s second largest spectator sport, for which it is world renowned – it’s about the thousands of local businesses it sustains and the workers and communities whose livelihoods depend on a thriving racing industry. “From trainers, breeders and stable staff to racecourse employees, hoteliers, local pubs, taxi drivers and small independent fashion shops, racing is indispensable to local economies in rural areas and towns in every corner of the UK. “The proposed changes would irreversibly damage this, destroying our businesses, hollowing out local infrastructure, and putting at risk thousands of good, local jobs in parts of the country where alternative opportunities are often limited.” As we told last month the Government is planning to ramp up betting taxes in a desperate bid to raise Treasury cash. Currently bookmakers pay tax on gross gambling yield - takings-minus-customer winnings - at 21% for online games like bingo, 15% for sports betting and 20% for machine gaming. The Institute for Public Policy Research has recommended hiking the rate for online gaming to 50% and sports betting to 25%. That means racing fans will win less money on every wager. According to the Betting and Gaming Council the move would cost 40,000 jobs and drive gambling underground with punters feeding illegal black market bookies an extra £8.4bn. Fruit machines would be hammered too with much smaller payouts. Greg Knight, 61, who runs Britain’s largest independent retail bookmaker Jenningsbet, said the move was an ‘attack’ on the ‘working classes’. His 189 shops nationwide would face closure and 850 staff could lose their jobs. He said: “This will potentially ruin every bit of fun for Britain’s working classes. Whether it’s putting a quid in a fruit machine, placing a bet on the Grand National, backing your favourite football team or having a day at the races - all of it is under threat. “It’s so ill-conceived I can hardly believe it. And it targets everybody the Government says it wants to help. The so-called experts say it will bring in extra revenue to the Treasury. “But the reality is people will turn to the black market. Illegal bookies don’t pay any tax. So the country will be worse off.” Former England footballer Michael Owen and music legend Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber are among more than 360 people who have signed a letter to the Treasury demanding the proposed changes are shelved. Ex-Liverpool and Manchester United striker Owen, 45, who owns a racing club in Cheshire, said: “I am concerned that current proposals on gambling tax harmonisation risk causing significant damage to a great British sport. “The impacts of that will be felt by businesses across Britain and the people they employ.”
