British racing seeks government talks after betting-shop machine tax rise

British racing's governing body is seeking urgent talks with the government after a budget increase in tax on betting-shop gaming machines prompted warnings over the sport's funding. According to the Guardian, British Horseracing Authority chief executive Brant Dunshea said the organisation would work with ministers to try to limit the consequences for racing.

Watch the highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhgiSyKp7Kc

Chancellor John Healey raised Machine Games Duty from 20% to 25% in Wednesday's budget. The tax applies to profits from fixed-odds gaming machines in betting shops. The increase was smaller than the rise to 40% proposed earlier this year by the Social Market Foundation, but the BHA said the lower increase still posed a threat to the businesses that help finance racing.

Dunshea warned that hundreds or potentially thousands of betting shops could close. He said British racing received almost a third of its £350 million annual betting income through high-street shops, and cited independent modelling suggesting the sport could lose £57 million a year. That modelling had been shared with the Treasury before the budget. The figure is a projected potential loss, not a reduction already recorded.

The Guardian reported that the UK has about 5,500 betting shops, with each contributing approximately £25,000 a year to racing through levy payments and rights fees for live coverage and data. Dunshea said a fall in that income could affect prize money, racecourse viability, employment, horse-welfare projects and research, explaining the governing body's concern about the tax decision.

The BHA chief also highlighted the possible effect on spectators who follow racing through their local bookmaker. For some supporters, he said, visiting a betting shop is their main connection with the sport. His warning therefore extended beyond direct funding to the role those premises play in racing's audience.

The Social Market Foundation offered a different assessment. Gideon Salutin, co-author of its report advocating a larger increase, welcomed the decision to raise the duty but considered the change limited. He said the organisation remained doubtful that an increase of this size would substantially alter industry behaviour.

Market reaction was positive for two major betting-shop operators immediately after the announcement. The Guardian reported that shares in Entain, which owns Ladbrokes and Coral, were up 8%, while Evoke, the owner of William Hill, rose 3.5%. Those movements accompanied competing assessments of the budget's impact; the shop closures and racing-income losses outlined by the BHA remained warnings rather than confirmed outcomes.