Racing and betting voice concerns around tax raise but share differing views

Racing stakeholders have joined gaming industry representatives in calling for caution as the government reviews whether to align remote gambling taxes under one structure.

HMRC, the UK tax office, is currently in the midst of a review due to conclude in July which could see the three different betting duties combined into one.

This would see a general gaming duty of 21% applied to all forms of betting, matching General Betting Duty and Pool Betting Duty, which both stand at 15%, with the 21% Remote Gaming Duty.

According to the Racing Post, Martin Crudance, Chief Executive of the Arena Racing Company (ARC), which operates the majority of UK racecourses, argued that racing should be taxed differently to other gaming products at a meeting yesterday.

The meeting was hosted by the Social Market Foundation (SMF), and saw opinions aired by betting and gaming stakeholders, racing leadership, and advocates for gambling regulatory reform.

“I think there is a strong argument that UK horseracing is taxed and treated differently from all other products because of the thoroughbred’s contribution to hundreds of livelihoods and communities and horseracing’s unique symbiotic relationship with the betting industry,” Crudance said, according to the Racing Post.

Is there really a racing-gaming schism?

This has been reported by outlets like The Guardian as being indicative of a schism between racing and gaming, which for the most part are usually on the same side of debates about how gambling should be regulated.

It is certainly true that racing and gaming are often in the same camp, with the topic of affordability checks arguably the issue where the two sectors have shared the most common ground.

During the Gambling Act review, both racing and betting leaders argued that affordability checks could dent operator profits and in turn impact the contributions wagers contribute to the heritage sports and its network of rural stakeholders.

It appears now that racing leadership believes that online gaming should be taxed more than racing for two reasons. Firstly, because of racing’s societal contributions, and secondly, to try and push bettors back towards the sport, which used to be the most bet on sport in the UK until 2019 when it was surpassed by football.

Both sets of stakeholders have their concerns about the impact HRMC”s tax review could have, and racing factors into both of these, but in a slightly different way.

Racing leadership is of the view that racing is a different product from to other forms of gaming, while gambling stakeholders take the more wide ranging view that harmonising tax would negatively impact both the industry and consequently be a direct detriment to the funding of racing.

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), the UK standards body and trade association for betting, has once again cited the industry’s support for racing via the levy. This sees 10% of annual betting revenue channeled into horse racing, overseen by the Horseracing Betting Levy Board (HBLB).

The BGC is often keen to remind racing that levy contributions have been increasing year after year – from £97m in 2021/22 to £108m in 2024/25 – despite HBLB data showing that average turnover per race is down 8%, as the sport continues to battle problems with racing attendance and fan engagement.

“It’s now more important than ever this vital contribution is not undermined by further new tax rises through the creation of a single tax for online betting, which risks driving punters away from the sport, or into the arms of the growing, unsafe gambling black market,” Grainne Hurst, CEO of the BGC.

“These parasite operators don’t pay tax, don’t care about safer gambling, and do not contribute a penny to the Levy. The BGC wants sustainable growth, for our members and for racing, but any new taxes would halt investment, hurt punters and harm racing.”

Concerns of the funding of the HBLB were left out of the Gambling Review’s White Paper, by the Conservative government. Previous leadership of DCMS stated that the racing levy should be independently settled by negotiations between UK racing (led by the British Horseracing Authority – BHA) and UK gambling sector led by the BGC.