Writing in The House, the Campaign for Fairer Gambling founder Derek Webb says the present rate of tax on online gambling should be almost tripled – and that his naysayers have been bribed into compliance.
You just can’t keep millionaire gambling prohibitionist Derek Webb out of the press lately as he steps up his campaign to kick the industry where it hurts.
This time, he has taken to the pages of Westminster magazine The House to yet again throw his weight behind a growing push to substantively increase tax on online gambling revenues, and accuse legislators opposed to the move of being in the pocket of gambling business; an oddly ironic assault given that Webb is one of the largest donors to the governing Labour Party.
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling founder, who made a fortune licencing 3 Card Poker in 1994, wrote that a massive hike in taxes for remote gaming and betting could help to “lift families out of poverty and reduce the widespread social harms caused by online gambling.”
Conceding that the exact rate of the new tax level should be “thought through,” Webb alluded to a recent call from one former Tory donor, billionaire businessman, that the increased levy could boost public funds by an additional £5bn per annum.
“My analysis suggests the sweet spot where tax maximises revenue…is plausibly closer to triple its current rate of 21 per cent for online gaming, at over 60 per cent, and at around 40 per cent for online betting,” Webb said. “That means the tax could easily deliver the £5 billion Caudwell asks for.”
Meanwhile, a recent article in The Sun, in which shadow gambling minister Louie French MP said Webb was seeking to “ruin the fun of millions” evidently got under his skin.
“There are many powerful voices against higher gambling tax, from politicians who accept trade hospitality to media companies profiting from gambling advertising,” he shot back. “Whatever happens, MPs like French can be confident the offers of hospitality will continue.”
In his parting swipe, Webb noted:“Since 2000, more than £100bn has been lost online. This transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, from the many to the few, and from onshore to offshore, has been a financial disaster for the UK.”
It’s an odd nationalistic rally from a multi-millionaire who signed off his last anti-gambling despatch to The Times from ‘Beverly Hills’ – presumably the hills of East Riding of Yorkshire’s Beverley rather than the celebrity domiated Beverly Hills in Los Angeles.
