British racing chief warns budget tax hike may have ‘devastating’ impact on sport

• Call for urgent talks after gaming machines tax increase

• Brant Dunshea: ‘thousands’ of betting shops may close

Brant Dunshea, the chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority, said on Wednesday that the sport’s ruling body will “urgently engage with the government to establish how we can work together to reduce the impact” after John Healey, the chancellor, raised the duty on the profits from fixed-odds gaming machines in betting shops from 20% to 25% in his first budget.

The widely anticipated rise in Machine Games Duty (MGD) was well below the doubling of the rate, from 20% to 40%, recommended by the Social Market Foundation think-tank earlier this year, but Dunshea warned that the move could “still prove devastating for our sport” since it presented a “clear risk” that “hundreds, if not thousands” of betting shops nationwide face closure as a result.

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