Betting and Gaming Council strongly rejects IPPR findings on gambling tax hike

The UK-based Betting and Gaming Council has released a strong statement rejecting the findings from a think-tank that urged the government to increase gambling tax.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) called upon the government to significantly increase the tax as a means to reduce child poverty.

The report released by the IPPR suggests that there are options on the table for the government to remove the two-child limit and scrap the household benefit caps. “These measures would cost around £3 billion and, while we recognise there are fiscal constraints facing the government, there are options on the table right now which could meet these costs and support 1.6 million children to live better lives,” the IPPR said.

This comes as talks of gambling reform have been rife in the United Kingdom over the last few months.

The think-tank went on to recommend increasing remote gaming duty from 21% to 50%, with machine games duty increasing from 20% to 50% on operator profit. They also proposed to increase the general betting duty from 15% to 25%.

Now, the Betting and Gaming Council has issued a statement based on these proposals, which they say they ‘completely reject.’

There's been a lot of talk in the media this morning about tax.
We are unequivocal that further taxes will hurt punters and businesses.
See our full statement below. pic.twitter.com/aLaarLNy53

— Betting and Gaming Council (@BetGameCouncil) August 7, 2025

“We completely reject the proposals by the IPPR, which Gordon Brown has based his calls for a drastic tax hike on, and which will only hit ordinary punters,” the BGC states.

“These proposals are economically reckless, factually misleading, and risk driving huge numbers to the growing, unsafe, unregulated gambling black market, which doesn’t protect consumers and contributes zero tax.”

Gordon Brown is a former British Prime Minister and long-time Chancellor who took to social media on August 6 to suggest it’s “time to tax the highly profitable gambling industry to pay for action on child poverty. Gambling will not build a Britain for the future but children free of poverty will.”

“BGC members contribute £6.8bn to the economy, generate £4bn in tax, while supporting 109,000 jobs,” the council continued.

“It’s also incorrect to suggest horseracing is taxed at a higher rate. General Betting Duty is 15 per cent across all sports. Conflating the separate Levy with tax is misleading, as the Levy goes directly back into racing to support the sport.

“Further tax rises, fresh off the back of Government reforms which cost the sector over a billion in lost revenue, would do more harm than good – for punters, jobs, growth and public finances.”

Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram

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