The CEO of Buzz Bingo has criticised the government’s decision to double remote gambling taxes, telling reporters the implementation of the 40 percent levy “completely threw us”.

Though the Treasury predicts the tax hike could raise an additional £810m, Dominic Mansour warned the rise itself will put dozens of profitable operators out of business.

“There are thousands of ‘black market’ websites online, run by criminals,” said Mansour. “But these operations don’t pay tax, and accept credit cards from players, which regulated gaming companies cannot. Within regulated gambling, there’s a system of controls and measures for the vulnerable.”

“As an industry, we could have functioned effectively with 30 percent. But 40 percent completely threw us.”

Reporting Mansour’s comments, This is Money said prizes and odds on regulated sites “would be lowered to offset the higher rate of tax, allowing black market betting websites to advertise more lucrative offers, and exploit gambling addicts.”

“The near doubling in online gambling taxes could be an own goal for the Treasury and could shrink revenues from the sector.”

Speaking to The Sun in November, Mansour had said “last year we paid around £63m to the taxman – almost a third of our entire year’s turnover.”

“We are still recovering from the National Insurance hit we took last year, and any further tax rises would be existential for our business.”