Kavanagh again calls for off-track betting levy to be doubled

THE very survival of the horse racing industry in this country depends on offshore betting firms being subjected to the same betting levy as those bookmakers operating on Irish soil, according to Horse Racing Ireland chief executive Brian Kavanagh.

The HRI’s position is that the current one per cent levy for off-track betting should be doubled – something which bookmakers are none too keen to embrace – and that online betting firms should be swept into the same tax net as their high street cousins.

It was the latter point which Kavanagh stressed yesterday.