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Sir Gavin Williamson has not held back
An MP has warned the Government’s new tax policies on online gambling threaten the success of one of Britain’s biggest betting companies – and could lead to the loss of thousands of jobs. Sir Gavin Williamson represents Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge and says the decision to increase remote online gambling duty by 19 percentage points could lead to Etruria-based online betting firm bet365 axing jobs in his constituency.
The tax hike was announced alongside another raise, in that for online sports betting from 15% to 25%. Horse racing will be exempt.
The Conservative MP echoed the words of the chief executive of the Betting and Gambling Council, Grainne Hurst, who last week said it would spell a “hammer blow” for the betting and gambling industry.
Speaking on the third day of the Budget debate in the House of Commons, Sir Gavin said bet365 employs 5,500 people in Stoke-on-Trent and is the city’s largest single private-sector employer. He said after the decline of other industries in the city, notably pottery and coal, it provided rare well-paid work in the wider region.
Sir Gavin said: “One of the most successful technology companies in this country is not based in London. It isn’t based in Cambridgeshire, it’s actually based in Stoke-on-Trent, and it’s called bet365. It’s the world’s leading technology company in terms of betting.”
He added: “But this Budget, potentially, could destroy one of our most successful technology sectors, and for what, the OBR noted in its analysis the following … ‘the behavioural responses to these changes are uncertain, but are estimated to reduce the yield by around one-third’.”
The firm was co-founded by the Coates family, including Denise Coates, who is its joint chief executive alongside her brother John. Its most recent accounts showed it had paid £364 million in tax in the year up to March 31, 2024. John Coates is the majority owner of Stoke City and serves as its chairman.
The Coates family and bet365 have previously donated to the Labour Party and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Denise and John and their father, Peter, donated £25,000 to Sir Keir’s office during the Labour leadership election in 2020. Peter Coates had owned a number of betting shops before Bet365’s formation in 2000.
The family, and bet365 group, had been occasional donors to Labour until 2015 – including a £100,000 donation by Peter Coates to the party in 2005. The wider firm donated the same figure to the central party in 2007.
Gambling laws in the UK were liberalised by Tony Blair’s government with the 2005 Gambling Act, which paved the way for the explosion in takings for bookmakers and online gambling firms. However critics have cautioned that this has plunged more punters into gambling addiction.
Sir Gavin said the OBR believed betting firms would respond to the tax changes by increasing prices or reducing payouts, leading to fewer customers.
He said: “This Budget is an absolute hammer blow to an industry that is providing high-quality, well-paid jobs in Staffordshire, in a city that seen the decline in coal-mining, has seen the decline in ceramics, and has seen so many job losses over so many decades, and bet365 has been one of the most responsible employers, investing in the local community, investing in charity, paying its taxes here in the United Kingdom. In fact the owners of it are the highest payers of tax in the whole of the United Kingdom. This will see jobs being lost in my county. Right across the remit. It’s destroying the old industries of Staffordshire, while also at the same time destroying the new industries of Staffordshire.”
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