Levy talks going to the wire with ministers due to update parliament on progress this week

Talks between racing, government and bookmakers on securing a voluntary deal to increase the flow of funding to the sport from the levy are set to go to the 11th hour, with ministers having promised to update parliament on their progress by Wednesday.

Lack of movement on levy reform has been described as a threat to the financial wellbeing of British racing by BHA chief executive Julie Harrington.

When the government published its gambling white paper last April it promised to review the levy to ensure racing did not suffer a financial impact from the proposals to introduce affordability checks.

The review began in May last year but racing and betting were asked to come up with a voluntary agreement by ministers due to the lack of a legislative window to make changes.

Racing's leadership has been calling for the levy to be extended to apply to all horseracing globally bet on by British customers, for which it claims there are both historic and international precedents. 

There has also been a call for the levy rate to be increased from its current level of ten per cent of bookmakers' gross profits on racing.

The sport has been looking to boost levy yield to around £130 million from the £100m raised under the current regime in 2022-23, although yield is expected to rise for the 2023-24 levy scheme which closed at the end of March.

The Betting and Gaming Council, which has been leading negotiations on behalf of bookmakers, has made an offer of additional funding to racing including a voluntary extra contribution which would be dedicated to investing in promoting and marketing the sport.

As talks have dragged on over the last 12 months the two sides have been unable to come to an agreement.

Lucy Frazer: issued a ministerial statement on the Levy talks last monthCredit: Anadolu Agency

Earlier this month culture secretary Lucy Frazer issued a ministerial statement in which she said the government recognised "a huge amount of hard work" had been carried out over the last year but added ministers were "disappointed" it had not resulted in an agreement.

She said that she and sports minister Stuart Andrew were set to undertake "an intense period of engagement with all parties to resolve this issue".

That engagement was understood to be continuing on Monday, after which prospects for a deal were expected to become clearer.

Frazer said in the statement that if no agreement was reached the government would consider legislative options, although ministers have previously said there is no legislative opportunity to amend the levy.

The culture secretary is due to appear before the Culture, Media and Sport select committee on Wednesday morning, when the government's gambling review is likely to be among the areas discussed.

Both the government's support for racing and the progress of the gambling review are among the subjects included in questions to ministers at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the House of Commons on Thursday morning. 

Read these next . . .

Government says it is 'pushing hard' for racing and betting to agree voluntary levy deal 

Heavyweight political allies of racing call on ministers to drop affordability checks and reform the levy 

New levy deal would allow more balanced racing programme says trainers' chief as talks resume 

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