Betting tax response misses the point

YOUR portrayal of the decision not to implement the increased betting tax (June 22/23) as some sort of let-off for the Government’s “friends” is ill-informed and misses the points at issue.

The key point is that no government has been able to levy tax on the internet and telephone betting services run by the big operators. Technically, their services are provided from offshore jurisdictions, so the proposed tax increase would be levied on the shops only. These shops, particularly the smaller chains, would not be able to compete with this handicap against the internet and phone lines, and would be forced to close.

The comparison given of when the tax was 5% does not stand up as the internet services did not exist and so the tax, which was passed onto the customer then, was not such an issue. As the tax is on turnover, a doubling of the rate now represents most of a betting shops’ profit margin and cannot be passed onto customers as they will just use the non-taxed internet service.

The comparison of the tax deferral with the cervical smear problem for young girls smacks of sensationalism. I trust you will set every spending and taxing decision by the government against this because, naturally, nothing will look favourable against its disappointing decision to delay this programme. By killing the 2,000 or so jobs that Irish betting shops provide in favour of mostly foreign-owned and non-taxed internet betting providers, we would have been even further away from providing the tax revenue that might fund the cervical programme.

Sam Russell

Rochestown

Cork