This budget means thousands of job losses - not protection for racing

The Chancellor’s Autumn Budget has been pitched as good news for horse racing, but in reality it spells thousands of job losses right across the entire betting and gaming industry and represents a major setback not only for that sector but for all the sports our industry supports.

Racing has seemingly been protected from higher betting duties. It sounds like a win, but anyone who understands how the sector operates knows that isn’t true.

This exemption is cosmetic. Beneath the surface, this Budget delivers a devastating blow to the very ecosystem that racing relies on.

What the Chancellor has actually done is impose one of the largest tax hikes on any industry in modern times. Online gaming duty will soar from 21 per cent to 40 per cent in 2026 - a 90 per cent increase. Sports betting duty will rise from 15 per cent to 25 per cent the following year, up nearly 67 per cent. The Treasury expects £1.1 billion a year in additional tax by 2029. These are not harmless revenue raisers; they will fundamentally reshape the market, and not for the better.

Steep tax rises layered on top of major new regulation will not make gambling safer. They will do the opposite - pushing ordinary players out of the regulated sector, which protects consumers, and into the illegal, unsafe and highly harmful black market, where none of those safeguards exist. This is particularly worrying given that gambling harm in the UK remains low at 0.4 per cent, according to both the NHS Health Survey and the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. Driving customers into an unregulated black market risks this.

Even the Treasury predicts a £500m increase in unlicensed activity and has allocated just £26m to counter it. That sum is a drop in the ocean given the scale of the threat, which this very Budget will accelerate.

Independent EY modelling makes the consequences clear. The Remote Gaming Duty rise alone could cost almost 15,000 high-tech jobs and displace over £4 billion in stakes to unlicensed operators. Higher sports betting duty risks another £2 billion moving offshore and a further 1,750 job losses. In total, nearly 17,000 jobs are at risk - many in regions that need investment most. More than £6 billion in stakes could be driven to the black market. These are not theoretical risks; they reflect the realities of a digital market where consumers can switch provider instantly.

International evidence reinforces this. Once the rises take effect, the UK will have the highest online gaming taxes in Europe. In the Netherlands, when slot taxes rose to 34.2 per cent, revenue fell, tax receipts dropped, and black-market play surged to more than 50 per cent. Pricing the regulated sector out of competitiveness doesn’t reduce gambling - it pushes it into the shadows.

Against this backdrop, the idea that racing has won anything is dangerously misleading. Racing may have avoided a direct betting duty rise, but it will still feel the consequences. Betting operators fund sponsorships, media rights and the levy; when the regulated sector contracts, that funding contracts with it. An estimated 500 betting shop closures could cost racing around £20m. Racing cannot thrive if betting is pushed into decline.

All this comes as the industry is already delivering extensive reforms from the Gambling White Paper. These include new financial risk checks, expanded safer gambling messaging and stricter age-targeting rules. Crucially, the Government has also introduced significant stake cuts to online slots, with maximum stakes now set at £2 for customers aged 18–24 and £5 for those aged 25 and over. These limits are among the most significant regulatory interventions to date and show that Ministers have already taken major action - making the decision to increase tax even harder to justify.

Forty reforms are already in place, with more to come. Meanwhile, the new statutory levy - worth over £120m a year - still lacks clarity on how charities can access funding, creating uncertainty for critical harm-prevention services.

The only winner from this Budget is the black market - they’ve hit the jackpot. The losers are customers who will now be exposed to greater risk, communities that rely on jobs and investment, and sectors like racing that depend on a strong regulated industry.

We stand ready to work with Government to deliver the safest, most sustainable gambling environment in the world. But that requires policies that strengthen the regulated market, not undermine it. If racing is to have a secure future, the system it relies on must remain strong - and this Budget takes us in the opposite direction.

Grainne Hurst is CEO of the Betting and Gaming Council.