'Hammer blow' as betting shops are not eligible for business rates relief

Betting shop operators have been dealt a "hammer blow" after it was revealed they will not be eligible for the business rates relief announced by the government this week in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said all retail and hospitality businesses would be exempt from paying business rates for 12 months in a bid to combat the financial damage caused by the outbreak.

However, betting shops, along with other businesses including casinos, are not eligible for the relief.

In response, Betting and Gaming Council chief executive Michael Dugher said: "The chancellor promised he’d do 'whatever it takes' and that help would be available to all businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure. That is manifestly not the case when it comes to business rate relief.

"This decision is a hammer blow to an industry that pays billions in tax, employs 70,000 hardworking, decent people in this country, and it is one that helps keep sports alive, in particular horseracing.

"Without any form of support or help we will see the wholesale collapse of a number of businesses in our industry."

Dugher said the industry was ready to help the government tackle the crisis, with members offering to free up staff time to help and to offer the use of premises should they be required.

He added: "We will continue to press the Treasury and government to reconsider this hugely damaging and frankly rather stupid decision."

MPs Laurence Robertson and Conor McGinn, the co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Racing and Bloodstock Group, called on the government to help both the racing and betting industries.

In a joint statement they said: "These are unprecedented times that require the whole nation and government to work together to tackle the coronavirus public health emergency. In dealing with the economic crisis that accompanies it, much has rightly been made of the urgent need for government to support the leisure, hospitality, entertainment and retail sectors, and protect jobs.

"We are clear that the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the horseracing and betting industries must be a key part of that; from racecourses such as Cheltenham and Haydock in our constituencies, to training yards as well as the bookie on the high street."

Robertson and McGinn said they had supported the decision to suspend racing in Britain, "for the public good and in the national interest".

They added: "We will be fully behind racing in the challenging and uncertain times ahead. We now call on the government to play its role in securing the future and sustainability of our great sport, and supporting the industry which makes such a significant financial and social contribution to its success."

Meanwhile, on-course bookmakers have written to the Gambling Commission asking for help over the fees they pay to the regulator.

Those fees are graded into three tiers depending on how many race meetings the bookmakers attend.

Federation of Racecourse Bookmakers director Robin Grossmith requested of the commission that when on-course bookmakers renew their licence they do so at the lowest level given the uncertainty over when racing will return.

The letter added: "Once the full racing calendar is restored, we will then be able to calculate if this is the correct amount or if bookmakers need to upgrade their licence to the middle or upper tier."

However, a Gambling Commission spokesperson said on Thursday that fees were set by statutory instrument and could not be changed "unilaterally", but added: "Our CEO Neil McArthur is speaking to representatives across the industry to understand their concerns.

"We know from those conversations that people’s welfare is everyone’s paramount concern and we want to help in whatever ways we can."

The major share price falls that have hit the sector in recent days abated on Thursday, with Paddy Power Betfair's parent company Flutter Entertainment rising more than 11 per cent to 6,136p, William Hill unchanged at 36.7p and GVC Holdings, parent company of Ladbrokes Coral, down 3p at 323.7p.

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