In the regulated legal lottery and sports betting industry, governments levy a betting duty tax on the providers of betting services. Such rates have an impact on turnover in betting markets. They lead to an increased theoretical margin to betting odds (which betting operators build in to ensure a profit margin), consequent increases to the takeout rate of the operator, increased prices for the customer, and inevitably, can drive customers to illegal betting markets where odds are better value because operators and customers do not pay any tax.
A new report published by the Asian Racing Federation on the Variable Betting Duty & the Impact on Turnover, Illegal Betting & Taxation Revenues, focuses on the tax on betting on horse racing and other sports and how it impacts both the legal and illegal sports betting markets.
The Report examines several jurisdictions in detail, including: Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, the UK and the US, where well-regulated markets have a very strong culture and history of racing, freely accessible data in English and well-developed legal and financial crime regulatory structures. It also contains an annex of betting duty levels worldwide.
Learn about the different approaches governments take towards betting duty tax, and the diverse reasons for these as well as the Report’s concluding recommendations that will allow licensed betting operators to effectively compete with the illegal market.