Trainers’ chief backs radical alternative to government’s gambling tax plan

Horse racing would be the winner if the SMF’s tax proposals for the gaming industry were adopted, as the sport would be spared harmonisation. Photograph: Zac Goodwin/PA

A radical alternative to Treasury plans to “harmonise” the rate of tax paid on online sports betting and high-risk casino gaming products received support from one of racing’s key stakeholder groups on Monday when Paul Johnson, the chief executive of the National Trainers’ Federation, said proposals from the Social Market Foundation thinktank, which will be published on Tuesday, “have the full backing of the NTF”.

The Social Market Foundation report – titled The Duty to Differentiate: How gambling tax reform can raise revenue for the government, reduce harm to the public and save British horse racing – was written by Dr James Noyes, a senior fellow at the SMF, with a foreword by Alex Ballinger MP, a member of the all-party parliamentary group for Gambling Reform.