IF you want to see the truly sour face of this Labour government, look at the proposals to whack up taxes on betting in the November Budget.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves pretends she’s only out to tax the rich, with talk of a new wealth tax and “mansion tax”.
But the plan for tax rises that would hammer betting outlets, from High Street bookies to seaside amusement arcades, and online bingo sites, shows another side of Labour’s class prejudice.
It confirms that this killjoy, the-Left-knows-what’s-best government wants to punish hard-working people who dare to enjoy having a flutter.
I am firmly behind the Sun’s Save Our Bets campaign, calling on Reeves to drop the proposed betting tax blitz.
Industry insiders warn that a hike in taxes on betting and gaming online could cost thousands of jobs.
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Some of these would be highly skilled tech jobs at gambling company centres in hard-pressed towns and cities.
Labour MP Gareth Snell points out that Bet365’s HQ is the biggest private-sector employer in his Stoke-on-Trent constituency.
Many more of those positions lost would be relatively low-paid jobs in High Street betting shops.
Betfred has warned it could shut all 1,300 of its UK betting shops, putting 7,000 jobs at risk, if the Chancellor raises betting duties.
William Hill says it could close 200 shops, affecting 1,500 jobs.
There would also be less money for the betting industry to spend supporting the sports we love to watch.
It currently provides around £350million to horse racing, £40million to the English Football League and £12.5million to other sports.
And it’s not only the bookies. Amusement arcades on piers and promenades — a treasured part of many trips to the seaside — are also in line for a kicking from Labour’s tax-hungry spoilsports.
Many of these arcades in towns, such as my Clacton constituency, are long-standing small and medium-sized family businesses that, like the rest of the High Street, are already under pressure from tax rises and soaring energy prices.
Bacta, the leisure and amusement industry trade body, warns that a proposed hike on Machine Game Duty of just five per cent could close one in three arcades.
If Chancellor Reeves was to double the duty, from 20 per cent to 40 per cent, Bacta believes they would all shut.
Of course there are a small number of problem gamblers. But a betting tax hike will do nothing to help them. It will just punish millions of ordinary punters
Billy Ball, director of Clacton’s historic pier, fears that a big increase in machine gaming duty “would deliver a catastrophic blow to the seaside amusement sector”, leading to “mass closures” particularly among “standalone seafront and High Street arcades”.
As Clacton MP, I will do all I can to support our pier and local arcades.
Bacta chief Joseph Cullis says the arcade industry is “consistently plagued with snobbery and misunderstandings”.
‘Stick up for your punter’
He points out that, although the Treasury sees seaside arcades as “an ‘easy win’ to tax”, there are 15,300 real jobs at risk here.
As Joseph puts it, “we are bricks and mortar venues offering low-stakes, low-cost fun to millions up and down the UK”.
Offering fun to millions! We can’t have that, can we? This is the modern puritanism of the middle-class Labour Party who believe working people — their traditional voters — cannot be trusted to have a bet or a pint without turning into addicts.
Of course there are a small number of problem gamblers. But a betting tax hike will do nothing to help them.
It will just punish millions of ordinary punters, who will get worse odds.
And it will encourage the flight of betting money towards foreign-based and black-market bookies — another blow to an industry that brings billions into the British economy.
Like many people of all classes, I have always loved a day at the races, whether it is Glorious Goodwood or lovable Plumpton.
My own family is one of the many that have worked in the industry — my grandfather sat on the board of William Hill, back in the days when William himself was building the business.
Millions of us enjoy a flutter.
Many feel protective of the seaside arcades that are part of our heritage.
A Bacta survey showed 72 per cent of us want the Government and local councils to do more to protect them — 86 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds called for urgent action to save our arcades.
Who voted for this government to act as the pleasure police?
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Labour’s tax rises have already closed more pubs, and their plan to ban smoking in pub gardens could have ruined the industry. Now they are coming for the innocent fun of a flutter.
Time, in the inimitable words of the Sun headline, to stick up for your punter.
