![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/9a62b530-9be8-40a1-b888-08174386510d.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI\u2019ve witnessed Ryanair chief Michael O\u2019Leary effing and jeffing about government ministers, deriding passengers and lambasting rivals on countless occasions over the years. Over cups of coffee, the proudly Irish executive has revealed the ignominy of having to buy one of his children an England cricket jersey, offered advice on handling my daughters when they are teenagers, and batted back pleas for tips from his champion thoroughbred stud. <\/p>\n
Yet even though this is a man whose horses have triumphed at the Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup, I\u2019d never thought to ask him about horse racing\u2019s long-established ties with gambling. My assumption was that as the boss of a budget airline known for foisting scratchcards on its hemmed-in customers, he\u2019d be a fan. How wrong I was. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the gambling companies run a dreadful model that is exploiting the most exploitable people,\u201d he told me last week. \u201cUltimately, horse racing is one of the more acceptable forms of gambling. [But] these fixed-odds betting terminals, the online gambling, the casino gambling, should just be f***ing outlawed.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary celebrates having four winners in a day at Cheltenham in 2014. He is highly critical of betting companies<\/p>\n
PAT HEALY\/RACING FOTOS\/REX FEATURES<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s gambling sector \u2014 and by extension, the country\u2019s horse-racing industry \u2014 is now back in the spotlight as Rachel Reeves<\/a> weighs hefty tax increases this autumn. This comes at the behest of former prime minister Gordon Brown \u2014 ironically part of the New Labour government that oversaw the sweeping relaxation of gambling laws in the mid-2000s in the first place \u2014 and think tanks that reckon doing so is a great way to raise much-needed money for the exchequer. <\/p>\n \u2022 Labour should atone for its gambling sins<\/a><\/p>\n The tax hike proposals are multi-faceted. But broadly, they envisage increasing duties on \u201cgaming\u201d products such as roulette, blackjack and slot machines from 21 per cent (if online) or 20 per cent (if in shops, pubs and the like) to 50 per cent. It is claimed that the changes could generate an additional \u00a33.2 billion for the exchequer. <\/p>\n They also envisage sparing horse racing from increased levies. Nevertheless, fears persist over the Treasury\u2019s proposals to harmonise \u2014 bring all the rates into line with one another \u2014 the UK\u2019s gambling tax regime. Such is the fear in horse racing circles about the threat posed by the changes that bosses will next week take the unprecedented step of going on strike, cancelling all British meets on September 10 in protest. <\/p>\n \u2022 Plan for betting tax will kill racing, warn sport\u2019s chiefs<\/a><\/p>\n On the face of it, increasing tax on online betting products looks eminently sensible. Yes, not everyone will agree that peddling these fixed-odds games is \u201cthe filthiest money in all capitalism\u201d, as one commentator has claimed. But many people will have sympathy with the view that the net impact on society is undoubtedly negative. I agree. <\/p>\n The problem is that there could be serious unintended consequences from implementing a fiscal solution to an ethical and moral dilemma. Moreover, the blunt instrument of increasing taxes is an analogue approach in a digital world and, probably, is doomed to fail as a result.<\/p>\n Bookmakers are not stupid. An increase in tax will not reduce their returns; rather, it will reduce the odds and promotions that licensed operators can offer to maintain their profit margins. <\/p>\n But hold your horses \u2014 that\u2019s good news, isn\u2019t it? <\/p>\n Not necessarily. Like the bookies, punters are savvy too; they are on the hunt for the best odds in the market. If the offers from licensed operators are significantly worse than those they can find from unlicensed counterparts, more and more people will be driven to the curious names that can often be seen on the front of football shirts. They are not hard to find: 11 of the Premier League\u2019s 20 sides have betting companies on their jerseys, and some of these do not have a UK licence. <\/p>\n So as consumers move from licensed betting products to unlicensed ones based offshore, the risk is that the tax take falls, rather than increases \u2014 which seems to be happening in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n The Dutch increased gambling taxes by about 4 per cent to 34.2 per cent at the start of the year. This has resulted in tax revenues being 83 per cent of what was collected over the same period in 2024, according to the Dutch gambling regulator. <\/p>\n