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Shadow Culture Secretary, Harriet Harman, wants a multimillion-pound tax levy on all sports gambling, with the revenue raised to fund treating gambling addiction, and grassroots sports.

Ah yes, it is that time of the week again when politicians once again feel the need to attack the gambling industry. Damn, just when we so very nearly made it to the end of the week, you may very well think to yourself. Well, you didn’t honestly believe they were going to leave us be for a whole week, did you? That’d be the day, eh?

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Maybe fast-food chains, such as McDonald’s could start propping up the obesity crisis.

You may have already read, but as Two Little Fleas reported earlier, the Labour Party are proposing the implementation of a multimillion-pound tax levy on all sports gambling, with the revenue raised to fund gambling addiction treatment, and grassroots sports. Sound nice, doesn’t it?

And, maybe, whilst we are at it, McDonalds, BurgerKing, and every other burger joint can get together with the sweets industry and fund the NHS (don’t forget the nasty chocolate industry, though. They must be involved). Maybe Coca Cola would like to get involved, too. Or perhaps every alcohol firm – whether the producers of high-end drinks like Grey Goose, or firms that produce cheap poison that you see homeless tramps drinking – could all get together and fund treatment for all the liver disease in the country. Indubitably, the same, too, could be said for the smoking industry and lung cancer. Hell, once you start this list, it can just go on and on… Reader, do you see where I am going with this?

It is all very nice and good in idea that companies should prop-up the industries in which they work, but some of us live in the real world. It would seem that the Shadow Culture Secretary, Harriet Harman, and the Shadow Sports Minister, Clive Efford, who laid out this plan in the new “More Sports for All” document, perhaps, are not quite with it.

Mr Efford, a noble chap, I’m sure, said: “We are consulting on whether we should introduce a levy on betting, including online betting, to fund gambling awareness and support for problem gambling but also to improve community sports facilities and clubs.”

Well, isn’t that just dandy? What a sporting idea! How charming! Can we, therefore, expect other problematic industries to start propping the ugly side of their businesses?

Mr Efford

Mr Efford

I wouldn’t hold your breathe. As it stands, a vast proportion of your taxes are spent on alcohol addiction treatment. Just earlier this year, the British government announced that they were investing £10 million in alcohol treatment centres. Did they receive a penny from the alcohol industry for this?  Did they hell! And why should they? This is also to say nothing about the gargantuan cost of alcohol-related illnesses that drain the National Health Service, alongside obesity-related illness, and smoking.

Economics works on the basis of supply and demand. That has always been the case throughout the history of man. When a good is desired, a market will be created to supply this demand. People like drinking, so alcohol producers exist. In a free market economy (as we have in Britain), the supplier is not expected to be responsible for the actions of their consumers during or after the transaction.

The alcohol industry have never been asked to fund alcohol treatment centres in the UK.

The alcohol industry have never been asked to fund alcohol treatment centres in the UK.

So, why is it expected that the gambling industry should not only be responsible for people who are not able to control themselves, but also for funding grassroots sports? It really makes very little sense.

When the Conservative party were asked about what they thought of Labour’s proposal, a spokesperson said “This is yet another short-term gimmick from Labour. It is a tax on football fans which will mean higher ticket prices for ordinary people wanting to watch our national sport.”

How nice it is easy to hear someone in politics stick up for us, the everyday people, who enjoy a flutter and are sick of politicians pointlessly and endlessly attacking the gambling industry.

What a shame, however, that this “spokesperson” is seemingly content with his party’s gross punishing of the gambling industry with the Point of Consumption Tax and the Licencing Act (for more on these see here and here). And why, I ask myself, hasn’t he called out his party’s cheap attacks and gimmick policies, too?

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