Rachel Reeves has been accused of ignoring warnings from a UK territory over the impact of her hike in gambling taxes. Andrew Lyman, Gibraltar’s gambling comissioner, told The Express that an increase in Remote Gaming Duty from 21% to 40% and a new Remote Betting Duty of 25% to replace the existing General Betting Duty at 15% announced by the Chancellor was “not inadvertent” as the Treasury had been warned of their destructive effects.
He said: “I think what I can say to you is that the Gibraltar government telegraphed very clearly that a disproportionate high rate of remote gaming duty would have a significant implication for the Gibralter economy, both in terms of jobs and corporate tax. So I just think that Gibraltar’s needs have not been prioritised.” He added: “Yes, it’s not inadvertent. It was no consolation to us that we did effectively make very clear what the implications were.
“I think the worst thing would have been not to have and for it to have been inadvertent, but it wasn’t inadvertent.
“Whether the economics was under fully understood, I don’t know. But it was very clearly telegraphed.”
When asked if it seemed that Ms Reeves had ignored The Rock’s warnings, Mr Lyman said: “Yes, and I think that there’s been a misunderstanding about the economics of the industry.
“Whether there’s been a confusion between revenue and profit, and obviously, the Treasury Select Committee sat before the Budget as good as suggested that the industry was scaremongering when it made representations, and presumably our representations have been treated in the same way.
“I mean, we can go on to talk about why it’s not scare mongering, because there’s a number of real examples even out in the public domain now about the impact this is likely to have.”
He said the Government’s stance will mean a “double whammy” for businesses – “a very large rate, plus a very short implementation period”.
Large PLCs will be impacted as well as smaller firms, Mr Lyman said, specifying William Hill and 888 are going to incur £80million in costs before mitigation.
There are currently around 3,000 people employed in the gambling industry in Gibraltar, and the commissioner believes 1,000 roles could be axed as a result of the tax hikes.
The commissioner said: “We thought we were part of the UK family, but it is obvious that we haven’t been prioritised.”
He added that Gibraltar has a four pillar economy – financial services, gambling, tourism and bunkering (filling up ships).
Ms Reeves has damaged one of these, Mr Lyman said, which constitutes between 25 and 30% of the territory’s GDP.
The Rock’s chief minister Fabian Picardo said in his Budget speech that the growth of its GDP during his tenure to date is “now confirmed as going from £1.1billion to £3.1billion”.
The Chancellor said last month: “Remote gaming is associated with the highest levels of harm and so I am increasing remote gaming duty from 21% to 40%, with duty on online betting increasing from 15% to 25%.
“I am making no change to the taxes on in-person gambling or horse racing and I am abolishing bingo duty entirely from April 2026. Taken together, my reforms to gambling tax will raise over £1 billion per year by 2031.”
