The Chancellor, Gambling, and Systems Thinking

I saw this excerpt in the Guardian in March - sometimes even the Chancellor can see a System at work, and act accordingly so that everybody gains!

"Gordon Brown’s budget initiative to abolish betting taxes for punters has turned out to be a brilliant gamble, the National Audit Office reveals today.

The switch from a betting tax on punters to a tax on the profits of the bookmakers has led the three biggest firms……..to repatriate their offshore operations from places such as Gibraltar back to Britain, creating jobs.

Betting stakes … have quadrupled since the law was changed, and the value of bets has nearly doubled from £27bn to £53bn.

The change means the government gets much less money from individual bets, yet nearly all the revenue is recovered because punters place more of them.

MR BROWN DECIDED TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM after Customs and Excise predicted a huge drop in gambling duties because punters could avoid paying the tax by betting online. All the big operators set up offshore companies to compete with foreign rivals.

The change in the law meant it made no difference to punters where they placed their bets, and this has stemmed Treasury losses. "