Rachel Reeves ‘ignored warnings’ as 1 change to strike £930m sector | Politics | News
Rachel Reeves has been accused of ignoring warnings from UK territories about the impact of increased gambling taxes. Andrew Lyman, Gibraltar’s gambling commissioner, told The Express that the increase in the Remote Gaming Tax from 21% to 40% and a new Remote Betting Tax of 25% to replace the current General Betting Tax of 15% announced by the Chancellor were “not inadvertent” as the Treasury had been warned of their devastating impact.
He said: “I think what I can tell you is that the Gibraltar government has telegraphed very clearly that a disproportionately high rate of remote gaming tax would have a significant impact on the Gibraltar economy, both in terms of employment and corporation tax. So I think Gibraltar’s needs have not been prioritised.” He added: “Yes, that’s not a coincidence. It’s no consolation to us that we’ve effectively made it clear what the impacts are.”
“I think the worst thing would have been to not have done it and it would have been unintentional, but it wasn’t accidental.
“I don’t know if the economics were fully understood. But it was clearly stated in the telegram.”
Asked whether Ms. Reeves had ignored The Rock’s warnings, Mr. Lyman said: “Yes, and I think there’s a misunderstanding about the economics of the industry.
“Whether there is confusion between revenue and profit and of course the Treasury Select Committee stood before the Budget and argued that the industry was fear-mongering when they made representations and our representations were probably treated the same way.
“I mean, we can continue to talk about why this is not scaremongering, because there are so many real examples in the public domain right now of the potential impact this could have.”
He said the Government’s stance would mean “double whammy” for businesses, meaning “a very large rate plus a very short implementation period”.
Large PLCs will be as affected as smaller firms, Mr Lyman said, adding that William Hill and 888 will incur costs of £80 million before they are eased.
Around 3,000 people currently work in the gambling industry in Gibraltar and the commissioner believes 1,000 positions could be cut as a result of tax increases.
The commissioner said: “We thought we were part of the UK family, but it is clear we were not given priority.”
He added that Gibraltar has a four-pillar economy: financial services, gambling, tourism and bunkering (filling ships).
Mr. Lyman said Ms. Reeves had damaged one of them, which accounts for 25 to 30% of the region’s GDP.
Rock’s premier Fabian Picardo said: budget speech It is now confirmed that GDP growth during his tenure “rose from £1.1bn to £3.1bn”.
The Chancellor said last month: “Remote gaming is associated with the highest levels of harm and that is why I am increasing the remote gaming tax from 21% to 40% and the online betting tax from 15% to 25%.
“I personally am not making any changes to gambling or horse racing taxes and am abolishing the bingo tax completely from April 2026. Taken together, my reforms to gambling tax will deliver an increase of over £1bn a year by 2031.”
