WEEKLY FEATURE: U.K. Thinktank Proposes More Than Doubling Gambling Tax

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The U.K.’s Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has once again called for the nation’s government to increase gambling tax, but this time it said the policy change could help fight child poverty.

The U.K. think tank has called for a significant uptick across the current remote gambling tax rates and gaming machines duty could raise over $4 billion per year.

It recommended increasing remote gaming duty from 21 percent to 50 percent, and machine games duty from 20 percent to 50 percent of operator profit. This would go along with increasing general betting duty from 15 percent to 25 percent, “bringing other sports in line with … horse racing,” it said.

Under this increase, the IPPR said the government could generate an additional $2.4 billion in 2026-27.