Treasury to lose over £100m a year over betting machine delays
By Caoimhe Toman
Date: Tuesday 18 Sep 2018
(Sharecast News) - The Treasury could lose over £100m for every year it postpones slashing the highest-permitted stake on fixed-odds betting terminals, a report from the Centre for Economic and Business Research has found.
The government had planned on cutting down the stake from £100 to £2 in a move to fight gambling problems but the change could be postponed until 2020. The final date will be revealed later on this year by chancellor Philip Hammond.
The delay was considered a result of concerns regarding the impact the change would have on the taxes collected by the Treasury from the machines. In 2017, £457m was collected.
But the report argues that the Treasury will eventually make money from the cut.
It explained the Treasury's plan to increase online gaming taxes to compensate for the FOBT cuts and believed many gamblers would change to other products that also incur tax.
The report calculated £19m coming from a minority of FOBT users could be economic benefit for the Treasury and would divert it into other parts of the economy.
It estimates the Treasury could lose from £98m to £132m for every year that the FOBT regulation doesn't change.
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