MPs urge Reeves to raise gambling taxes despite ‘scaremongering’ from firms

The committee also took aim at the industry’s chief lobbyist for a ‘staggering’ claim that gambling was not linked to social ills Photograph: Mark Waugh/Alamy

The chancellor should ignore “scaremongering” by gambling firms and raise taxes on the £11bn sector’s most harmful products, MPs on the influential Treasury select committee have said.

In a scathing report, delivered as Rachel Reeves’s Treasury team is finalising her second budget as chancellor, MPs accused the sector of hiding its more “insidious” products behind traditional activities such as horse racing and seaside arcades.