{"id":136661,"date":"2020-05-22T17:28:02","date_gmt":"2020-05-23T00:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=136661"},"modified":"2020-05-23T17:53:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T00:53:23","slug":"uk-betting-industry-shares-jump-on-1-billion-fobt-tax-windfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-betting-industry-shares-jump-on-1-billion-fobt-tax-windfall\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Betting Industry Shares Jump on \u00a31 Billion FOBT Tax Windfall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shares in Britain\u2019s leading betting companies rose\u00a0Thursday on the news that the sector is preparing to collect on a $1 billion ($1.22 billion) tax rebate.<\/p>\n

\"UK
The UK betting industry should not have paid a 20 percent sales tax on top of betting duty on FOBT revenues, which puts the government on the hook for an estimated \u00a31 billion. (Image: Racing Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last month, an upper tax tribunal agreed with an August 2018 lower tribunal ruling, which found that the UK government\u2019s application of a 20 percent sales tax (VAT) on fixed-odds betting terminals — on top of a 15 percent betting duty \u2013 between 2015 and 2013 was a violation of European tax law.<\/p>\n

This was the verdict in a long-running case brought by bookmaker Betfred<\/a> and casino and bingo hall operator the Rank Group<\/a>\u00a0against UK tax authorities.<\/p>\n

The panel ruled that the Treasury should not have levied the 20 percent VAT because the machines were similar to casino table games like roulette, which are exempt from the charge.<\/p>\n

William Hill Could Claim \u00a3150 Million <\/strong><\/h2>\n

On Thursday, William Hill<\/a> said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange that the UK\u2019s taxation agency, Her Majesty\u2019s Revenues and Customs (HMRC), had confirmed that it did not intend to appeal the ruling. The bookmaker said it is proceeding with a claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result of this announcement, we will now engage with HMRC to agree the support for, quantum, and timing of the refund,\u201d William Hill said.<\/p>\n

Whilst William Hill currently expects the net cash recovery to be material, its precise quantum remains uncertain,\u201d it added. \u201cNevertheless, the board has considered a number of scenarios which suggest a potential net cash recovery of between \u00a3125 million ($152 million) and \u00a3150 million ($182 million).\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

GVC, which owns Ladrokes Coral, has previously said it expected to claim around \u00a3200 million ($243 million).<\/p>\n

\u2018Crack Cocaine of the High Street\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

FOBTs are located within retail betting outlets and offer a variety of digital versions of gambling games like roulette. Until the beginning of 2019, players could wager up to $100 per 20 seconds on the machines, which accounted for more than 50 percent of retail betting revenues.<\/p>\n

But they were labeled \u201cthe crack cocaine of the high street\u201d by critics, who argued they had a pernicious effect on society — \u201chigh street\u201d being a metonym for the UK brick-and-mortar retail sector.<\/p>\n

\n

In 2018, despite warnings of job losses and shop closures, the UK government took drastic measures, slashing the maximum stakes on the machines from \u00a3100 to \u00a32.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Some media commentators speculated that the government may have delayed implementing these reforms until January 2019. That’s because it anticipated the billion-pound hit from Betfred\u2019s taxation case and wanted to continue reaping tax revenue from higher-stakes machines.<\/p>\n

For the betting industry, which has been battered by regulatory headwinds in recent years and now faces grim profit warnings due to widespread sports cancellations, a billion-pound tax rebate is just the tonic it needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shares in Britain\u2019s leading betting companies rose\u00a0Thursday on the news that the sector is preparing to collect on a $1 billion ($1.22 billion) tax rebate. Last month, an upper tax tribunal agreed with an August 2018 lower tribunal ruling, which found that the UK government\u2019s application of a 20 percent sales tax (VAT) on fixed-odds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":136663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUK Betting Industry Shares Jump on \u00a31 Billion FOBT Tax Windfall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"William Hill says HMRC will not challenge UK betting industry billion-pound FOBT tax ruling, expects to receive a \u00a3125 million to \u00a3150 million tax rebate.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UK Betting Industry Shares Jump on \u00a31 Billion FOBT Tax Windfall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"William Hill says HMRC will not challenge UK betting industry billion-pound FOBT tax ruling, expects to receive a \u00a3125 million to \u00a3150 million tax rebate.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-betting-industry-shares-jump-on-1-billion-fobt-tax-windfall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-23T00:28:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-24T00:53:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/high-street-betting.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1190\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-betting-industry-shares-jump-on-1-billion-fobt-tax-windfall\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-betting-industry-shares-jump-on-1-billion-fobt-tax-windfall\/\",\"name\":\"UK Betting Industry Shares Jump on \u00a31 Billion FOBT Tax Windfall\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-betting-industry-shares-jump-on-1-billion-fobt-tax-windfall\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-betting-industry-shares-jump-on-1-billion-fobt-tax-windfall\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/high-street-betting.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-23T00:28:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-24T00:53:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"William Hill says HMRC will not challenge UK betting industry billion-pound FOBT tax ruling, expects to receive a \u00a3125 million to \u00a3150 million tax rebate.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-betting-industry-shares-jump-on-1-billion-fobt-tax-windfall\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-betting-industry-shares-jump-on-1-billion-fobt-tax-windfall\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-betting-industry-shares-jump-on-1-billion-fobt-tax-windfall\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/high-street-betting.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/high-street-betting.jpg\",\"width\":1190,\"height\":540,\"caption\":\"The UK betting industry should not have paid a 20 percent sales tax on top of betting duty on FOBT revenues, which puts the government on the hook for an estimated \u00a31 billion. 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