Chancellor Rachel Reeves will reportedly spare UK horseracing from any gambling tax increases when the government’s Autumn Budget is announced. 

As per The Telegraph, the Chancellor will instead focus on raising the taxes for online casinos and land-based slot machines. 

It is expected that the current tax increase proposals would generate close to £1bn, although no final decisions have been made. 

The news comes after a period of intense lobbying from the horseracing sector, including the staging of a one-day strike from the British Horseracing Association as part of its ‘Axe the Racing Tax’ campaign.

Under the current system, pool and general betting are taxed at 15%, while online casino is subject to a 21% tax rate.  

Land-based slot machines are also taxed at 20% as part of the current setup. 

Earlier this year, the government opened a consultation into introducing a Remote Betting and Gaming Duty (RBGD) in the UK market. 

The RBGD would look to unify all three verticals under one single tax rate, potentially raising pool and general betting to match the level of online casino, known as remote gaming duty. 

The consultation closed in July, with Reeves set to announce the Autumn Budget on 26 November. 

Think tanks, including the Institute for Public Policy and Research and the Social Market Foundation (SMF), proposed increasing both remote gaming duty and machine gaming duty to 50%, while doubling general betting duty from 15% to 30% to bring the UK’s tax rate in line with other European jurisdictions.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown backed said proposals, claiming they could raise up to £3.2bn.  

However, in its proposals, the SMF suggested slashing horseracing from 15% to 5%, while ramping up the Horserace Betting Levy from 10% to 20%.

The think tank said this would generate around £140m in additional revenue for British horseracing each year, although the cut to 5% would reduce Treasury coffers by £100m.

SMF said this decline would be made up by the significant hike on online casino tax.

In September, 101 Labour MPs signed an open letter addressed to Reeves calling for an increase in online gambling taxes, with the measure spearheaded by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling Reform. 

The prospect of raising horseracing’s tax rate has been met with staunch opposition by the industry. 

Research commissioned by BHA in July, ahead of the strike in September, suggested that a single tax rate could cost the industry £330m over the course of five years, with more than 2,700 jobs potentially at risk. 

Last week, 363 horseracing professionals, including BHA chairman Lord Allen of Kensington, signed an open letter calling for the government to rethink any tax increases for the sport.

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