Gambling duties : HM Customs and Excise

The estimated annual turnover on gambling activities in the UK is around [pound]53 billion, and in 2003-04, HM Customs and Excise collected [pound]1.35 billion in gambling duties.

There are six types of gambling duties, relating to the lottery, general betting, bingo, gaming, pools betting and amusement machines licence.

This NAO report examines the progress made by HM Customs and Excise to implement the recommendations made in previous reports by the NAO and the Committee of Public Accounts in 2000, and in particular it looks at the protection of gambling duty revenues; the use of resources to target risks to gambling duties; and the response of HM Customs and Excise to the changes in the gambling industry.

The report finds that Customs has implemented most of the recommendations made, and has secured additional revenue of [pound]10 million.

The introduction of the gross profits tax for betting has been a success in encouraging the biggest bookmaking firms to retain their core operations in the UK. Further work needs to be done to address developing risks to duty revenue from new forms of electronic gambling, and to continue progress activities on measuring the tax gap for gambling duties to enable better targeting of resources to tackle the potential losses of revenue.