Clause 8 - General betting duty: restriction of exemption for on-course bets
Finance Bill
2:45 pm
Mr John Baron (Billericay, Conservative)
I, too, welcome you to the Chair, Mr. McWilliam. Although I accept the Economic Secretary's remarks, the choice of sports to benefit from the exemption is unfair. The clause amends the definition of an ''on-course bet''. As I understand it, from 1 September 2003 the on-course exemption to betting duty will apply only to bets made at horse and dog race meetings.
Because of the actions of both Labour and Conservative Governments over the years, Britain has been a world leader in the global betting market and the online betting revolution. I pay tribute to the Government for abolishing the betting tax in October 2001. Going back even further, the Economic Secretary rightly pointed out that in 1987 on-course betting was taken out of the scope of general betting duty. As he said, the intention was to promote a healthy on-course betting market for horse and greyhound racing, which importantly supports the industry's starting price mechanism.
The Committee has heard that the provisions have been increasingly used at other venues, such as football grounds, rugby grounds, golf courses and so forth. At this point, I should declare a partial interest: like many others, one of my great pleasures is watching rugby, particularly England at Twickenham, and having the occasional beer as well. Although I do not partake, I have friends who like to bet on the outcome of the match. It appears that the Government are not prepared to accept that on-course bookmakers at events, such as rugby matches and games of football, should be treated in the same way as those at horse races or greyhound meetings.
I accept that the starting price mechanism is crucial in horse racing, but starting prices also apply to football matches and rugby matches. The nature of betting has moved on because one can bet in a variety of ways on not only the outcome but the spread of points. It seems unjust that those going to rugby matches, for example, should be discriminated against and, at the end of the day, poor tax law results in costs being passed on to consumers.
I would also ask the Economic Secretary one other question. What assessment has he made of the impact that the clause will have on the odds offered by the bookmakers? I should be interested to hear whether any analysis of that has been carried out by the Treasury.