Our nation has a love of horse racing, which is the UK’s second-largest spectator sport, attended by almost five million people each year. The horse racing industry, which supports 85,000 jobs, is expressing major concerns over the Labour Government’s plans to increase betting tax from 15% to 21% in the autumn budget, an increase of 40% from the current rate.
The argument for increasing this taxation, is to align betting taxes on horse racing with that of slot machines and online casino games which is already 21%. However, this fails to recognise the key differences between these types of gambling. Unlike online casino games, British horseracing makes an enormous contribution to both employment and our society, and has vastly different rates of gambling related harm. Unlike online casino games, betting on horse racing is not available every few seconds, twenty-four hours a day.
The British Horse Racing Association commissioned economic research, showing that raising the current 15% tax rate paid by bookmakers on racing to the 21% that online games of chance have, could have a devastating impact on the sport with a £330 million revenue hit to the industry in the first five years, putting 2,752 jobs at risk in the first year alone.
Horse racing is worth £4.1 billion to the UK economy, but it’s not just the national economy that risks being impacted, it’s more locally too. Racing at Goodwood brings huge numbers of visitors into West Sussex, which I’ve seen for myself both on trains and on the road. We also have horse racing at Fontwell, Brighton and Plumpton, and not far to the north of us is Epsom racecourse.
So concerned is the industry that this extra tax will make British horse racing financially unviable, that in an unprecedented move, horse racing will be going on strike on Wednesday 10 September with no race meetings taking place. They are saying that British racing is already in a precarious financial position and this could push it over the edge. They need to be listened to, or we risk losing a valuable social, cultural and economic asset.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Conservative Group
27th August 2025
