French Senate votes to back gambling tax hike

France has been equivocating about a suggested gambling tax increase on land-based casinos that will make sense from a fiscal point of view but may have unintended consequences on local economies.

The opposition has been rather strong, with local political leaders, mostly mayors, signaling to the central government that communities could end up suffering by potentially hiking the gambling levy that land-based casinos pay.

France may be upping the tax on gambling after all

In some places, casinos contribute a significant part of the local budget. Although the French government has said that it would acquiesce to those qualms and not seek immediate action on the gambling tax in the country, senators in France have now passed an amendment that would indeed increase the tax.

On Thursday, senators voted on the amendment, essentially hiking taxes on sweetened drinks, tobacco, and gambling.

France is looking to raise additional money, facing a glaring €16bn in 2025, with lawmakers agreeing that the best course of action would be to raise the tax on industries that are generally not too loved by the broader public.

A similar move was rumored in the United Kingdom ahead of the Labor government’s budget, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, stopped short of putting in a double-digit tax increase on gambling in the legislation.

Following backing from the Senate, it’s likely that the tax increases on gambling, tobacco and sugar drinks will indeed make the final cut of the 2025 Budget, which is still a subject to voting in the Assemblée Nationale, the French Parliament.

Leave horse racing out of it

The idea to reintroduce the planned increase on gambling tax was Élisabeth Doineau, a senator in France’s upper chamber of the parliament.

According to Doineau, the issue that most lawmakers took with the previous suggestion to increase tax on the gambling industry was not so much occasioned by local opposition as it were by the fact that the changes included upping the levy on horse racing bets, which has been omitted this time.

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