Doubling of Tax on Irish Bookies off the table

It may have gone nearly unnoticed but the proposed increase in betting tax in Ireland has been scrapped or at least put on the back burner. Last October Finance Minister Brian Lenihan announced the government’s intention to double the turnover tax levied on bookmakers from 1% to 2%. This was met, as you can imagine, by some considerable resistance despite the fact that 10 years or so ago the tax was 5%. Representatives of the bookmaking industry (the Irish Independent Betting Offices Association) lobbied that the increase would cost thousands of jobs as hundreds of shops closed which would in turn have a knock on effect on the horse and greyhound racing industry. It is estimated that the industry is worth over 3 billion euro and the increase would cost the industry 40 million euro which would have been a useful addition to the government’s finances. As an example, Paddy Power estimated the tax could reduce profits by 9 million euro.
As it stands at the moment online and telephone betting are not subject to this duty and it appears that this fact has been used to justify the “delay” as the government considers how to tackle this issue.
Will they at the same time study the Casino industry which has very few if any controls? Casinos have to be “Private Members Clubs” to be legal but who knows even how many Casinos there are in Ireland? One thing seems for sure and that is that the government is looking to get a bigger slice of the pie from somewhere.